* State authorities place violence-hit city under 24-hour curfew, order troops in
KANO: New clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Nigerian city of Jos left nearly 200 dead, a senior Muslim cleric and a paramedic said on Tuesday.
State authorities placed the city under a 24-hour curfew and terrified residents reported gunshots and smoke billowing from parts of the Plateau State capital in central Nigeria. All flights to the city were suspended, aviation sources said.
Nigeria’s Vice President Goodluck Jonathan ordered troops into the city.
The fighting broke out at the weekend over the building of a new mosque. Jos has been a hotbed of sectarian tensions in recent years with hundreds killed. Most bodies from the latest clashes were taken to the city’s central mosque, according to its head Balarabe Dawud. “We received 156 dead bodies this morning and another 36 this afternoon,” Dawud said.
He said at least 800 people had been wounded, 90 of whom had been taken to military hospitals with serious injuries.
Fighting spread to Bukuru on the outskirts of Jos during the day, leaving another three dead and 39 injured, a paramedic said.
Dawud said the Jos central mosque had run out of medical supplies to treat the injured.
“Even neighbourhood private clinics are full with the injured. Normally these are the places we would have gone to for supplies, but they are also in need of them,” he said.
A mosque employee, Mohammed Shittu, told AFP that “the mosque is full with the injured and the dead”.
Announcing the extension of a weekend curfew, the state information commissioner, Gregory Yenlong said, “All residents are hereby directed to stay indoors as security agents work towards restoring peace.”
David Maiyaki, a Christian resident of the Dutse Uku area of Jos where the new fighting erupted said the clashes had gone on despite the curfew. “Fighting is continuing unabated,” he said. “We woke up to new fighting this morning. As I am talking to you we are indoors, but there is burning and gunshots all around us,” Maiyaki told AFP by phone.
Sunday’s fighting had been confined to the predominantly Christian Nassarawa Gwon area but has since spread to other parts of the city, the army said. afp
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