Date Published: 01/19/10

Fresh fighting erupts again in Jos

...Govt slams 24 hours curfew

Fresh Christian-Muslim clashes erupted on Tuesday in Nigeria's flashpoint city of Jos where weekend violence killed at least 26 people, said state authorities who placed the city under 24-hour curfew.

Residents said they heard gunshots and had seen smoke billowing from parts of the city, the capital of Plateau State in central Nigeria.

"The government has placed a 24-hour curfew on Jos and Bukuru (a small town on the fringes of Jos) following the resumption of violence in parts of the city," the state's information commissioner Gregory Yenlong told AFP.

"All residents are hereby directed to stay indoors as security agents work towards restoring peace," said Yenlong.

All flights to the city were suspended Tuesday, airport and airline sources said.

David Maiyaki, a Christian resident of Dutse Uku area of Jos where the fighting erupted overnight said the curfew did not yet seem to have taken effect.

"We woke up to new fighting this morning. As I am talking to you we are indoors, but there is burning and gunshots all around us," David Maiyaki told AFP by phone.

"Government has placed a 24-hour curfew but it does not seem to have any effect, fighting is continuing unabated," he said.

Ibrahim Mudi, a resident of Sabon Fegi suburb in the central part of the city, said: "From here I can hear gunshots and see burning buildings from a neighbourhood in the northern part of the city".

"It seems that Jos north is completely on fire," added Mudi, who spoke on the phone from his veranda.

Fighting first erupted on Sunday when Christian youths protested the building of a mosque in a Christian-majority area of Nigeria's 10th-largest city which has a population of 500,000. Houses and vehicles were set ablaze.

Sunday's clashes also injured hundreds and displaced around 3,000 people, the Red Cross in the city said.

Hundreds of troops and police were deployed and the authorities said Monday that calm had returned to the city that has in recent years been a hotbed of religious clashes in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians.

Yenlong vowed the state government "will do all it takes to ensure the return of normalcy to the city".