LAGOS (AFP) — Hundreds were killed and thousands forced to flee their homes in the central Nigerian city of Jos when Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election, witnesses said Saturday.
"So far about 400 bodies have been brought to the mosque following the outbreak of violence," the worst sectarian riots since President Umaru Yar'Adua took office last year, Khaled Abubakar, the imam of the central mosque in Jos, told AFP.
"Families are coming to identify and claim the bodies, while those that can not be identified or nobody claims them will be interred by the mosque," Abubakar said.
Road links to Jos from the Muslim-majority north were sealed on Saturday, an AFP journalist said, and flights to the city cancelled.
Earlier in the day, a correspondent for Radio France Internationale in Jos, Aminu Manu, told AFP he had counted 381 bodies at the mosque.
"Hundreds of people have been killed in the last two days since the riots started," Christian clergyman Yakumu Pam said. "Remains of burned bodies litter some parts of the town. It is so terrible."
Radio Plateau said the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, had placed four districts of Jos under a curfew and ordered police to fire on anyone who broke it following the clashes on Friday.
There was no official confirmation of the death toll.
Local residents said several churches and mosques were razed in the violence, which started with a rumour that the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost the local election to the federal ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).
The ANPP is perceived in Jos to be a predominantly Muslim party, and the PDP to be mainly Christian.
Jos is the administrative capital of Plateau state. It was the scene of a week of violence between Christians and Muslims in September 2001 that also left hundreds dead.
Manu, the Radio France Internationale reporter, said he saw around 300 youths, a mixture of Muslims and Christians, who had been arrested for taking part in the riots and who were at police headquarters.
He also reported having seen around 100 people with gunshot wounds who said they had been shot by the security forces.
Another Jos-based reporter for the Punch newspaper had told AFP Friday he counted 55 bodies in three hospitals.
Manu said the bodies in the hospitals are thought to be those of Christians.
"So far over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now seeking refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks," a Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos, Dan Tom, said.
"I can't give any figures but there are dead bodies on the streets that are yet to be evacuated. We are afraid of an outbreak of an epidemic if they are allowed to decompose," he told AFP.
"In these places where people are taking refuge, there is no water and no food. We call on the Nigerian emergency management agencies to come to their aid," he added.
On Friday night Red Cross spokeswoman Umo Okon told AFP from Abuja that there were "over 300 injured" in different health centres in the town. She declined to estimate the number of dead.
A brief government statement late Friday said that President Umaru Yar'Adua was "very sad" about the situation and that he had sent in troops to contain the riots.
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