Four die in Miss World riots

RIOTING Muslim youths killed at least four people yesterday in northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, one witness said, as protests against the Miss World beauty pageant spread.

Mobs burned down shops and Christian churches, placed burning tyres in the street and left behind at least two badly burned bodies, rights activist Shehu Sani said.

“We saw two bodies on the ground, hacked down by knives and burned,” the head of the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress said.

Kaduna State spokesman Muktar Sirajo said: “All schools, offices and business areas have been closed down. A curfew has been declared.”

The violence has raised memories of the riots that broke out between Muslims and Christians in the city in 2000 and left more than 2,000 people dead.

On Wednesday, Muslim youths burned down the Kaduna office of the This Day newspaper after an article suggested the prophet Mohammed might have taken a Miss World beauty queen as his wife.

The pageant, due to be held in the Nigerian capital Abuja on December 7, has raised tensions among Muslims.

Many Nigerian Muslims are particularly angry that the Miss World contestants have begun their programme of events in the country during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Around 90 beauty queens from around the world are in Nigeria preparing for the Miss World contest.

The women were yesterday under tight security at their hotel in Abuja and are due to travel to the southern oil city of Port Harcourt today, in an overwhelmingly Christian area, for a weekend fashion show.