- The Jos state in Nigeria’s northern part of the country has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew after deadly clashes between Muslim and Christian left at least 12 people dead.
The weekend crisis came a year after a similar crisis occurred in the local government.
The violence reportedly broke out on Sunday morning between rival Christian and Muslim gangs, setting fire to mosques, churches and other buildings. The Sunday clashes reportedly erupted after Christian youths protested against the building of a mosque in the Christian-dominated Nassarawa Gwom district of the city.
In a statement issued by Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State signed by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Gregory Yenlong, the night time curfew is imposed between 6 pm to 6 am scraping the earlier curfew that was between 12 midnight to 6 am.
The commissioner said that the measure was aimed at halting the clashes in Jos town so that hoodlums would not take advantage of their security breach to molest innocent citizens.
The statement urged all citizens to adhere strictly to the directive as all efforts were geared towards resolving religious clashes in the in the Plateau state.
In November 2008 hundreds of people were killed in two days of violence triggered by a rumour that the majority-Muslim All Nigeria People’s Party had lost a local election to the mainly Christian Peoples Democratic Party. Soldiers and policemen were brought in to restore order.
Religious violence has also erupted in nearby northern Nigeria.
Last month at least 70 people were killed in violent clashes between security forces and members of a radical sect in the country’s northern Bauchi State.
More than 200 ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side in the West African country, although civil war left one million people dead between 1967 and 1970 and there have been bouts of religious unrest since then.
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