|
Nigerian Army Quells Lagos Ethnic Clashes
 |
| Nigerian police attempting to quell three days of ethnic clashes
|
LAGOS, Feb. 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Dozens of heavily armed soldiers and police on Monday quelled three days of clashes between ethnic gangs in a district of Nigeria's main city of Lagos, news agencies reported.
Soldiers and police staged joint patrols through the Mushin district after three days of violence between the Christian southwest Yoruba and Muslim north Hausa tribe which left more than 55 people dead and more than 200 wounded, 57 seriously injured, AFP reported.
Lagos State Information Commissioner Dele Alake told AFP by phone that order had been restored. "We have joint military-police patrols going on in the affected areas and they will continue. We have mop-up operations going on," he said.
A Lagos University Teaching Hospital spokesman, Ayo Olagunju, near the scene of the trouble, told AFP that more bodies were on the streets since fighting resumed early on Monday morning.
"The situation is serious. They are burning houses and fighting," Olagunju said. Many houses were burnt down and market stalls destroyed. The fighting comes as the city attempts to recover from the Ikeja army munitions plant explosion on January 27. It erupted in a series of blasts and triggered a stampede.
Meanwhile, Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, promised Sunday, February 3, that the results of an inquiry would be made public into a series of explosions at an army weapons store in Lagos which left more than 1,000 people dead.
Two parliamentary inquiries have also been set up to investigate the cause of the blasts, which were reported to have been set off accidentally by a fire.
Relations between Muslims and Christians have been strained all across the north since the introduction of Islamic law in 12 of the 19 states in January 2000, a move strongly opposed by Christians. Nigeria is split between more than 250 ethnic groups and the two major religions.
In February 2000, between 2,000 and 3,000 people were killed in Muslim-Christian riots in Kaduna over calls for the introduction of Islamic law. In June and July 2001, hundreds of people were killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians in the northern state of Bauchi.
|
