Death Toll Rises to over 200 in Riots in Nigeria

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 25, 2002

Death Toll Rises to over 200 in Riots in Nigeria

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More than 200 people have been killed and more than 1,000 were injured in the four days of riots between Muslims and Christians in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, a senior Red Cross official said on Sunday.

President of the Nigerian Red Cross Emmanuel Ijewere told reporters that the death toll is not the last figure as violence continued on Sunday.

Though the Miss World contest was moved to London, there have been more killings overnight, Ijewere said.

About 11,000 people also were displaced during the riots, he added.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government said on Sunday that the international media should be responsible for the country's failure to host the Miss World beauty pageant, saying there is an international conspiracy against the event.

Information Minister Jerry Gana was quoted as saying that the international media, particularly the British press, sabotaged theMiss World contest by blackening Nigeria's image.

"There's an international conspiracy just to show that an African country like Nigeria can not host this thing. I think Nigerians should be really angry with the international press," hesaid.

Moslems in Kaduna launched protest on Wednesday against the hosting of Miss World beauty contest in Nigeria and the alleged blasphemy of Prophet Mohammed by a local independent newspaper.

This Day newspaper had in its Nov. 16 edition published a storyon the Miss World Beauty pageant, a portion of which its Muslim readers considered blasphemous of the Holy Prophet Mohammed.

The management of the newspaper immediately retracted the offensive portion and published a comprehensive apology.

Simon Kolawole, editor of the edition of This Day, and writer Isioma Daniel were arrested on Thursday. No charges have yet been brought against them.

The pageant is being boycotted by some countries to demonstrateprotest against the ruling of the Amina Lawal's case. Among those are Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama.

Kaduna, one of Nigeria's most volatile cities, had been witnessed more than 2,000 people dead in clashes between Christians and Muslims two years ago.

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