Religious riots sparked by the publishing of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad continued into their fifth day in Nigeria as Christian mobs in this southern city attacked Muslim motorists, leaving at least 22 dead. Nationwide, the toll was at least 65 dead and likely to rise.
Thousands of refugees also huddled at police stations and army barracks near here to avoid hordes of angry young men bent on avenging days of killings in northern Nigeria cities.
“They’ve been killing our brothers and sisters in the north,” men shouted Wednesday morning, according to motorist Afoma Clara Adigwe, 40, shortly after driving through Onitsha. She escaped the mobs, she said, only by speaking the Ibo language dominant in this heavily Christian section of Nigeria.
Nigerian news reports put the death toll at 22, but that appeared low. At least 19 bodies were visible along the road within several hundred feet of the Head Bridge, a massive steel-girder crossing of the Niger River. The bodies appeared to have been beaten and, in several cases, burned beyond recognition. Discarded sandals and the round, decorative hats favored by Muslims from northern Nigeria were left behind in the dirt.
