Nigeria Clashes Kill Five at Opposition Party Rally in Central Jos

As reported by By Dulue Mbachu - Jan 8, 2011 4:48 PM GMT

Fighting between rival factions of a Nigerian opposition party in the central city of Jos sparked clashes between Muslims and Christians that killed five people, a military official said.

A meeting of the Congress for Progressive Change, whose candidates will run for office in general elections in April, erupted in “a scuffle and it went into the streets,” Brigadier-General Umaru Hassan, commander of the military task force in charge of security in the area, said today by phone from Jos, the capital of Plateau state.

Hundreds of people died in Jos and surrounding areas last year in clashes between Christian and Muslim groups, including 80 people killed in Christmas Eve blasts claimed by a radical Islamic sect.

Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country of more than 140 million people, roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south, has suffered periodic outbursts of sectarian violence. At least 14,000 people have died in ethnic and religious violence since 1999 in Nigeria, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Security Situation

The Congress for Progressive Change is led by a former military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari. The party defied previous advice “not to hold a congress in Jos because of the security situation,” Dan Manjang, a spokesman for Plateau state Governor Jonah Jang, said by phone from the city. Jang is a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

An official who answered a number listed on the Congress party’s website said he couldn’t comment on the Jos incident.

Plateau state lies in Nigeria’s so-called middle belt region between the West African nation’s north and south.

Armed attackers killed six people on their way to a wedding yesterday in Mongu, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Jos, state Police Commissioner Abdulrahman Akano told reporters today. Police detectives are investigating the attack and can’t say yet if it’s linked to sectarian violence in the region, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Abuja at dmbachu@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.