{"id":37334,"date":"2013-05-06T12:09:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T09:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=37334"},"modified":"2013-05-06T12:09:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T09:09:04","slug":"nigeria-communal-clash-ethnic-clashes-leave-39-local-residents-dead-africa-news-37334","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/nigeria-communal-clash-ethnic-clashes-leave-39-local-residents-dead-africa-news-37334\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria communal clash: Ethnic clashes leave 39 local residents dead \/ Africa News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nigeria-Ethnic-Clash-39-Dead\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Police officials in eastern Nigeria State of Taraba say at least 39 people have been killed in clashes between rival communities in the town of Wukari.<\/h1>\n

The clashes broke out between the members of the Jukun and Hausa Fulani community during a funeral procession in the town of Wukari.<\/p>\n

The Jukun community is a Christian predominantly people while the Fulani is Muslim dominated people in the area.<\/p>\n

Local reporters say that funeral was being held by the predominantly Christian Jukun ethnic group and it is unclear how the violence started.<\/p>\n

But unsubstantiated rumor going round in the town has it that as the mourners passed through a Muslim area of the town they began chanting slogans which angered the residents there. This was not however confirmed by officials.<\/p>\n

Spokesman for Taraba state police Joseph Kwaji told reporters dozens of riot police were deployed to the area after over 30 homes and properties were set on fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the clash, 39 people were counted killed and several properties were razed by fire, Mr. Kwaji told Press TV.<\/p>\n

Over 72 people were estimated to have been injured in the clash according to figures quoted by local reporters who had access to the town.<\/p>\n

There is a long history of tensions between Nigerian Muslims, who mainly live in the north, and Christians who mostly live in the south along with followers of traditional animist religions.<\/p>\n

At least 20 people lost their lives in a similar round of violence February over a row over which ethnic group was entitled to play on a football pitch in the town.<\/p>\n

The violence came a day after a panel was set up to investigate the February clash in which several people died.<\/p>\n

Nigeria is statistically home to more than 200 ethnic groups and has an almost equal Christian-Muslim population in the country.<\/p>\n

But there have been increasing outbursts of violence, amid militant\u2019s insurgency in the north which has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.<\/p>\n

According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, ethnic and religious conflicts in Nigeria have claimed the lives of over 14,000 people between 1999 and 2009.<\/p>\n

Issaka Adams \/ NationalTurk Africa News<\/b><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police officials in eastern Nigeria State of Taraba say at least 39 people have been killed in clashes between rival communities in the town of Wukari.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[77153,50935,50934,2062,50927],"class_list":["post-37334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-africa","tag-fulani-muslim-community","tag-jukun-community","tag-nigeria","tag-nigeria-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}