Tension high in Kaduna

Soldiers and police are patrolling the streets of Kaduna to try to restore order following clashes between Muslims and Christians during a demonstration over the implementation of Islamic Sharia law in the northern city.

"The situation is still quite desperate," Fabian Okoye, the director of research and publications at Human Rights Monitor in Kaduna, told IRIN on Tuesday. "The violence degenerated over night and this morning and soldiers have been deployed in volatile areas to bring calm to the area," he said. News reports said that some 20 people were killed during the clashes while according to Okoye a conservative estimate put the death
toll at about 30 and it was "probably more".

According to news reports, in the last 24 hours, houses, cars, mosques and churches have been burned, shops looted, and roadblocks mounted by Christian and Muslim groups. "It's a cat and mouse situation," Okoye said. "The army dismantle a roadblock put up by Christians or Muslims and then shortly afterwards the individuals regroup and put it back up again."

(See separate IRIN-WA item headlined: "Tension still high in Kaduna after religious clashes")

In a related development, Nigeria's northern Niger State passed a bill on Monday introducing Sharia and becoming the second to adopt the Islamic code, news reports said. Since the declaration of Sharia in Zamfara last year, several other states in the predominantly Muslim north have considered introducing Islamic law, causing alarm among Christian minorities. In Kwara State, which like Kaduna has many adherents of both faiths, Muslim militants vandalised Christian churches last December.