At least 20 dead in new religious riot in Nigeria

By George Esiri

ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) – At least 20 people, mostly
Muslims, were killed in the southeastern Nigerian city of
Onitsha on Wednesday by Christians taking revenge for the
killing of Christians in northern Nigeria at the weekend.

The killings brought the death toll from five days of
religious riots in Africa’s most populous country to at least
66, and possibly many more.

“There are thousands of boys with cutlasses and sticks on
the rampage. I’ve counted at least 20 bodies here by the
Onitsha bridge. They are Hausas. Some of them are burned and
some have their stomachs cut open,” said a Reuters
photographer.

The Hausa are the main ethnic group in predominantly Muslim
northern Nigeria, while Onitsha is located in the ethnic Ibo
heartland, a mainly Christian region.

It was the second day of reprisal attacks against Hausa
residents of Onitsha after Ibos were targeted in riots in the
north. There was no official toll from Tuesday’s fighting in
Onitsha but a security source said at least a dozen people,
possibly many more, had died.

A doctor at the Onitsha general hospital said more than 50
newly injured people had been brought in on Wednesday.

Nigeria’s 140 million people are split roughly equally
between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south,
though sizeable religious minorities live in most cities.