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NIGERIA: Uneasy calm in Bauchi after deadly clashes

BAUCHI, 25 February 2009 (IRIN) - Calm has returned to the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi following two days of sectarian clashes that killed 14 people, displaced 4,500 and left 100 hospitalised, according to police and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The violence erupted on 20 February, with youths burning mosques and churches, according to residents of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state, about 300km northeast of the capital Abuja.

The exact cause of the clashes is not known. But tension flared in Bauchi, a city of four million residents, on 13 February when members of a Pentecostal church opposite a mosque blocked a pathway being used by Muslims attending Friday prayers, residents said. A truck had broken down in the middle of the road separating the church and the mosque, blocking worshippers’ passage.

Many of those who fled the recent violence are sheltering in schools and two army barracks in the city, afraid to return to their homes, according to Bauchi police commissioner Adanaya Tallman Gaya.

“I and my wife and four children have been sleeping in the open for the past two days because my house and all my belongings have been burnt," clothing vendor Habila Makama told IRIN from Gudum military barracks where some 1,500 people are taking shelter. "My main worry is how to re-start life from scratch."

International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Adamu Abubakar told IRIN: “It is still not safe for them to return to their homes even though [their homes] have not been destroyed because they could [still] be targeted.”

Soldiers have been patrolling the streets of the city since 21 February and state governor Isa Yuguda has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the seven areas of the city affected by the violence.

Police commissioner Gaya said police had made 30 arrests in connection with the unrest.

Context

Bauchi is one of several states in Nigeria that see occasional bouts of deadly violence between Muslims and Christians.

In December 2007 clashes over construction of a mosque left six dead and dozens injured, as well as many houses burnt, in the Yelwa area of Bauchi city.

In June 2001 Bauchi state was rocked by sectarian violence following attacks on Muslims in Tafawa Balewa, 100km south of Bauchi city, in a protest over the implementation of Islamic law or ‘Sharia’; the violence claimed over 300 lives, according to the authorities.

Sharia was introduced in 12 states in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria in 1999, heightening tensions between Muslim and Christian communities.

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Copyright © IRIN 2009
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.