Cartoon riots spawn "Christian" revenge

At least 27 Killed in Nigeria

ONITSHA, Nigeria (Feb. 22)--Revenge attacks against Muslims killed at least 27 people in southeastern Nigeria on Wednesday after anti-Christian violence spawned from cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammud killed dozens and left thousands homeless in the mainly Muslim north.
The slaughter raised the death toll from five days of religious riots fueled by political tensions in Africa's most populous country to at least 73, 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," said Reuters photographer George Esiri in the southeastern commercial hub of Onitsha.
"They are Hausas. Some of them are burned and some have their stomachs cut open," he said.
The Hausa are the main ethnic group in the north, while Onitsha is located in the ethnic Ibo heartland. Rioting started in Onitsha on Tuesday after news of the northern riots emerged.
The revenge violence spread on Wednesday to Enugu, another southeastern city, where the Red Cross said at least seven people were killed and 150 injured.
In Onitsha, troops and police were unable to contain the violence. A group of soldiers prevented the mob from crossing the Niger River bridge into neighboring Delta state, but did not attempt to stop the killing.
"We are evacuating some internally displaced people to Asaba for temporary sheltering because they were being overcome and attacked in places where they were initially camped, such as police stations," said a Red Cross official in Lagos.
A doctor at Onitsha general hospital said police carried in 20 corpses, but it was impossible to verify if these were the same people as the doctor did not know where the corpses had come from. The local police commissioner declined to comment.
Oliver Onah, an Onitsha resident, said he saw an enraged mob burn two policemen to death at a roundabout in the city.
Nigeria's 140 million people are split roughly equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, though sizeable religious and ethnic minorities live in both regions.
Religious violence is often stoked by political leaders seeking to bolster their own power bases. Fighting in one part of the country usually sparks reprisal killings elsewhere.
There was no official death toll from Tuesday's fighting in Onitsha but a security source said there were at least a dozen fatalities, possibly many more, while the Red Cross said 325 people were injured and 2,000 displaced.
In the northern cities of Maiduguri, Bauchi and Katsina, at least 46 people were killed and thousands were left homeless during four days of clashes between Muslims and Christians.
"The political atmosphere in the nation is already very bad and with high poverty there are a lot of unemployed youths. That is why this kind of crisis starts easily," said Adamu Abubakar, a Red Cross official in Bauchi.
The violence in Katsina and Maiduguri broke out days before the two cities were due to stage public hearings on constitutional reform.