Frightened residents flee violence-hit Nigerian city
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Frightened residents flooded a military checkpoint to flee the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday after Muslim-Christian clashes that killed nearly 500 people and gutted scores of buildings.
While fighting subsided in the central city and troops were deployed to end the unrest, fleeing residents said they were too frightened to stay.
At a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Jos, where long lines of cars and buses carrying residents formed, soldiers searched all vehicles, an AFP reporter saw. Several vehicles were laden with baggage.
At least 178 bodies have so far been recovered from wells and pits after the clashes, Kuru Karama village head Umar Baza said Sunday, taking the unofficial death toll compiled from various sources to 492.
Kuru Karama, a former mining village, is a Muslim enclave in a Christian region 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Jos.
Dozens of cars, houses, churches and mosques were burnt during four days of unrest and an overnight curfew remained in effect between 5:00 pm and 10:00 am.
State officials have given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, on January 17 and spread to nearby towns and villages.
Global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) told AFP on Saturday that according to figures provided by Muslim leaders, at least 364 Muslims died in the clashes.
Although the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has not provided a comprehensive death toll of its members in the fighting, one of its officials, Chung Dabo, earlier told AFP that 55 Christians died.
A Nigerian relief agency said on Sunday it had registered 213 women widowed and 1,265 children orphaned by the clashes.
The National Emergency Management Agency said it had also recorded more than 4,000 people who fled the fighting and sought refuge in its camps in the neighbouring Bauchi State.
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While fighting subsided in the central city and troops were deployed to end the unrest, fleeing residents said they were too frightened to stay.
At a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Jos, where long lines of cars and buses carrying residents formed, soldiers searched all vehicles, an AFP reporter saw. Several vehicles were laden with baggage.
At least 178 bodies have so far been recovered from wells and pits after the clashes, Kuru Karama village head Umar Baza said Sunday, taking the unofficial death toll compiled from various sources to 492.
Kuru Karama, a former mining village, is a Muslim enclave in a Christian region 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Jos.
Dozens of cars, houses, churches and mosques were burnt during four days of unrest and an overnight curfew remained in effect between 5:00 pm and 10:00 am.
State officials have given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, on January 17 and spread to nearby towns and villages.
Global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) told AFP on Saturday that according to figures provided by Muslim leaders, at least 364 Muslims died in the clashes.
Although the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has not provided a comprehensive death toll of its members in the fighting, one of its officials, Chung Dabo, earlier told AFP that 55 Christians died.
A Nigerian relief agency said on Sunday it had registered 213 women widowed and 1,265 children orphaned by the clashes.
The National Emergency Management Agency said it had also recorded more than 4,000 people who fled the fighting and sought refuge in its camps in the neighbouring Bauchi State.
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