Nigerian Red Cross says at least 25 people have been killed in new attacks in the city of Damaturu.
Officials in northern Nigeria's
Kaduna state have imposed a ban on movements following fresh rioting in two
cities after a weekend of violence left at least 70 people dead.
The unrest broke out in the cities
of Kaduna and Damaturu on Tuesday, adding to fears of rising violence in the
country's north, where the Islamist group Boko Haram's campaign has been
concentrated.
The Nigerian Red Cross said that at
least 25 people were killed in the new attacks in Damaturu.
Twenty civilians were killed in the
violence while five security officials reportedly died following attacks on
military targets, police said.
"In view of certain new
security challenges that came up today ... the state government is hereby
re-imposing a 24 hours curfew in all parts of the state," a government
statement read.
Suicide blasts claimed by Boko Haram
struck three churches in the state on Sunday killing at least 16 people,
prompting reprisal violence by Christian mobs who killed dozens more, burning
some of their victims.
The latest unrest in the state
capital, Kaduna city, started when relatives were unable to reclaim the remains
of those killed, according to a resident of Tudun Wada in the city's mainly
Muslim northern area.
After some relatives were turned
away from a city morgue, protesters "poured into the streets... burning
Christian shops and attacking Christians within sight", Habibu Ladan said.
He said soldiers quickly arrived in
the area.
Nwakpa O Nwakpa, the Red Cross
spokesman, told us that his teams deployed in Kaduna sent "an alert a few
minutes ago that there are ongoing protests".
Officials had imposed a
round-the-clock curfew when the first rioting began on Sunday.
That curfew was relaxed on Monday
afternoon, when the situation appeared to have pacified.
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