vigilant TV

Rioting in Nigeria has escalated significantly since I
last reported on the matter, despite a front page apology from the newspaper that published Isioma Daniel’s article. The article has subsequently been removed from the online edition of ThisDay; the copy I mirrored last week is still available (plain text).

According to the BBC, at least 215 are dead, with more expected. Security forces have reduced the violence by enforcing a curfew, but there are some allegations of abuse by soldiers.

In addition to 215 bodies counted on the streets and in mortuaries, others were thought to have been buried by their families, Nigerian Red Cross president Emmanuel Ijewere was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

[...]

It is estimated that more than 1,000 have been injured and more than 11,000 made homeless in the clashes.

Civil rights activists said more than 20 churches and 8 mosques have been burned down in the city as well as a number of hotels.

They also said there had been allegations that some members of the security forces had killed civilians without provocation.

– BBC, Nigeria riots toll ‘passes 200’.

According to The Guardian, the editor of the newspaper has been arrested on unspecified charges.

Although ThisDay apologised for the article on three occasions last week, the newspaper said yesterday the editor of its Saturday edition, Simon Kolawole, had been arrested by secret police on Friday.

[...]

In the days that followed publication of the ThisDay article, anger spread throughout Nigeria’s Muslim community. Few had read the piece itself, but in mosques preachers described it as blasphemous. The fact that the contestants were already present in the country during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan added to the anger.

In Kaduna, a city with a large Christian population too, anger spilled over into violence last Wednesday. Crowds of Muslim youths descended on the office of the offending newspaper, and burned it down. Gangs erected burning barricades and launched attacks on Christian neighbours.

– Guardian, Chaos and terror as Miss World contestants escape carnage.