350 charged in connection with Kaduna riots

Some 350 people arrested during four days of religious riots in Nigeria’s northern city of Kaduna, were charged on Monday with arson, rioting, culpable homicide and other offences, officials said. Officials said people arrested in predominantly Muslim areas of the city were taken to Shari’ah courts, while those picked up in the mainly Christian areas were given a choice between customary and magistrate courts. According to the police, more than 1,000 people will face charges over the coming days. The separate trials reflect the religious tensions that have gripped the city which, over the past two years, has experienced waves of sectarian violence. More than 200 people died in last week's riots, sparked by a newspaper article considered by Muslims as sacrilegious. Several unidentified corpses were taken on Monday from the city’s hospitals and given a mass burial. Kaduna was calm but tense under heavy security presence this week. Leaders of Christian communities in the state held a news conference on Monday in which they accused Kaduna Governor Ahmed Makarfi of inaction in the face of security reports indicating that Muslim militants planned violent protests. Retired Maj-Gen Yohanna Kure, the spokesman for the group, said military personnel deployed to quell the riots shot at unarmed people from the Christian communities. "While we do not provoke, we shall no longer tolerate any act of provocative killing, maiming or burning of our churches by anybody for no wrong committed by us as we shall return fire for fire," Kure said.