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Uneasy calm in in Kano following riots

    ABIDJAN

    An uneasy calm returned to the northern Muslim Nigerian city of Kano on Friday after rioting the previous day. This rioting was linked to earlier disturbances in the south-western town of Shagamu which left dozens dead, news organisations reported. One senior official in the state governor's office told Reuters that the governor "will douse the tension when he makes a broadcast".

    Witnesses told Reuters that shops and houses belonging to southern Nigerians were looted on Thursday by youths in Kano's Kruna district, after Hausa victims returned from Shagamu, some 50 km north-east of Lagos. There were no confirmed reports of deaths in Kano, but dozens of people were injured, it said.

    Clashes took place on Sunday in the south-western town of Shagumu between Nigeria's two largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba and the Hausa, during a traditional Yoruba festival known as the Oro. The conflict erupted because Yoruba people said that the Hausa community had refused to obey the traditional rule which requires non-participants in the festival to stay off the streets.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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