Mosques vandalised in Nigeria clashes

By: Mohamed Ali

ABUJA, Nigeria: Christians battled Muslims on Wednesday in Nigeria's north-eastern Adamawa State setting homes and mosques ablaze in a dispute over the construction of a mosque near a Christian tribal leader's palace, according to witnesses and police.

The fighting that started on Tuesday in the city of Numan claimed a dozen people, mostly Muslims, and injured scores other.

Reports said Christians of the local Bachama tribe had demanded for weeks that the area's minority Muslim Hausa-speakers destroy a mosque built early this year near the palace of Bachama chief Freddie Soditi Bongo.

The Bachama complained the mosque's minaret was an affront to majority Christians because it was taller than the Christian leader's palace.

Muslim leaders had refused to tear down the mosque until Christians pay for a new one elsewhere.

When the fighting began on Tuesday, Christians tore down the mosque's minaret and severely vandalised several other mosques in nearby Gyawana village, several Christian witnesses said.

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Nigerian state outlaws Abdul Qadir Jilani commemoration

KANO, Nigeria: The police of Nigeria have banned an annual religious procession by Muslims in the northern city of Kano on the appeal of Christian leaders.

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