Clashes erupt on Muslim holiday in central Nigeria

The deadly stabbing of a police officer sparked clashes in tense central Nigeria on Tuesday as Muslims commemorated the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, with witnesses reporting several others killed.
According to one witness, the violence in the city of Jos included a gang setting up a roadblock in one neighbourhood, leading to three deaths, while another said four people were killed and their bodies set ablaze in the Gada-Biu area.
Another witness reported four more deaths, while tyres, cars and motorcycles were said to have been burned as well.
Police confirmed only the death of the officer in the city, which has been hit by repeated clashes between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups. The violence has intensified ahead of April elections.
Abdulrahman Akano, police commissioner of Plateau state, where Jos is the capital, said “one anti-bomb squad mobile policeman was stabbed to death” by local youths.
An annual parade by Muslim students had already been cancelled in the divided city out of fears of violence.
Muslims who commemorated the holiday at the central mosque rushed outside when they heard soldiers shooting into the air, fearing the mosque was coming under attack, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
Details of the killing of the police officer were unclear. A witness said the police officer argued with a butcher at a market and was stabbed to death.
“As this happened, there was confusion and a fight started and people were running in different directions, and before you know it, four people were on the ground dead,” said the witness, who did not want to be named.
Plateau state is located in the so-called middle belt between the mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south of Africa’s most populous nation.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the region in recent years, and a series of Christmas Eve bomb blasts in Jos that left dozens dead set off a new round of violence.
President Goodluck Jonathan was scheduled to visit the area later this week as part of his campaign, but it was unclear whether the trip was still being planned.

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