Over 100 dead in Miss World protests, Red Cross says

At least 100 people have died in Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna in three days of violence that began as a protest by Muslim militants against the country's hosting of the Miss World contest, Red Cross officials said on Friday. Despite a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the city on Thursday by Kaduna State authorities, Christian youths mounted reprisal attacks against Muslims whom they believed were responsible for attacks on churches, houses and people suspected of being Christians. The president of the Nigerian Red Cross, Emmanuel Ijewere, told reporters there were so far 105 "identifiable deaths", adding there could be more. Other Red Cross officials said more than 500 people had been treated for injuries. This latest round of sectarian violence in religiously mixed but volatile Kaduna was sparked by an article on Saturday in Thisday, a Nigerian daily. The report suggested, in response to objections by Muslims to the holding of the Miss World contest, that had he been alive today, the Prophet Mohammed would probably have chosen one of the 92 contestants for a wife. Thisday has been publishing daily apologies to the Muslim community since Monday, saying the comment was included by mistake. However, its regional office in Kaduna was burned down by Muslim militants on Wednesday. Several churches and private buildings were also razed in the city, where sectarian violence claimed more than 2,000 lives in 2000. Key Muslim groups, including the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, have called on President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government to cancel the Miss World contest in the interest of peace. An official statement on Thursday condemned the newspaper article, but gave no indication that the government intended to stop the beauty contest, scheduled for 7 December in the capital, Abuja, and which officials have touted as a potential boost for Nigerian tourism. "The government wishes to assure all and sundry that it will not condone such deliberate provocation and offending of the sensibilities of followers of any faith," Ufot Ekaette, secretary to the government, said in the statement. "Necessary steps, as provided by the law, have been taken to bring those responsible to book. The government is appealing to Muslims not to take the law into their own hands over the matter, as their complaints are being redressed," it added. About half of Nigeria’s 120 million people are Muslims. The rest are Christians and followers of traditional African religions.