Twenty die as machete-wielding rioters pour through Nigerian city

BODIES littered the streets of the southern Nigerian city of Onitsha yesterday as the death toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria rose to at least 96.

Witnesses saw at least 20 dead after gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns poured through the mainly Christian city.

Residents said soldiers had opened fire on a mob of ethnic Igbo Christians that tried to enter the military barracks after reports ethnic Hausa Muslims sheltering in the barracks had attacked a nearby primary school, killing children.

The claims could not be verified and it was not clear if the soldiers killed anyone in the mob.

The deaths brought to at least 96 the number of people killed in Nigeria since sectarian violence first erupted on Saturday in the northern city of Maiduguri, where Muslim protests against cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed turned violent, razing 30 churches and claiming the lives of 18 people.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 130 million people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.

Thousands of people have died in religious violence since 2000.

In largely Christian Onitsha, witnesses said two mosques were burned down and least 30 people were killed on Tuesday, most of them northern Muslims.

Christian mobs attacked Muslims and their businesses in Onitsha in reprisal against violence in Maiduguri and Bauchi, which like most of northern Nigeria, are dominated by Muslims.

Chris Ngige, the region’s governor, ordered police reinforcements for the mainly trading city and declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew.