Death toll from Nigeria violence hits 39

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The police in Nigeria's northern Taraba state has put the death toll from Friday's sectarian violence in Wukari town in the state at 39, with 30 others injured, the local media reported Saturday.

The report quoted police spokesman Joseph Kwaji as saying that the injured persons were receiving treatment in various hospitals in the town.

“Thirty nine corpses have been seen so far and 30 persons injured,” he said, adding that 30 houses were burnt while 30 persons have been arrested in connection with the crisis.

He said calm has returned to the town, which has been put under a 24-hour curfew.

The crisis broke out when a funeral procession of a traditional chief from the Jukun stock, the largely Christian ethnic group dominant in the town, passed through a neighbourhood dominated by the predominantly Muslim non-Jukun residents of the town.

Tension has been high between the adherents of the two religions in the town since February, when they clashed over the use of a football pitch.

That clash left many dead and injured.
-0- PANA SEG/VAO 4May2013