More from the ever-ambiguous yet perpetually angry "youth" who go on apparently "random" rampages every once in a while. And what triggered this latest outburst, which left hundreds dead? Rumors that Muslims had lost a local democratic election to a Christian party. Nothing new: four years earlier in this same district, the Muslims -- youths and otherwise -- went on a rampage killing 1500 Christians and destroying 173 churches.
"2,000 youths storm mosque in riot-torn Nigerian city," by Amini Abubakar for the Star Phoenix, December 1:
JOS, Nigeria - Two thousand angry youths stormed a mosque in the riot-torn city of Jos on Monday as a top parliament official appealed for an end to religious troubles that have left hundreds dead, witnesses said.
Thousands of troops and police patrolled the streets of the central city after the clashes between rival Christians and Muslims however and a relative calm led to an easing of a curfew.
Youths entered the main mosque as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, made an appeal to Muslim leaders for calm.
The youths shouted for the removal of Plateau state governor Jonah Jang and his government before they left after an intervention by Muslim leaders and the mosque was cordoned off.
"You must put your anger in your pockets," Bankole told them.[...]
The state government has said about 200 people died in the clashes, though other sources have given a toll twice the official figure.
A Red Cross official spoke of "well over 300 people killed" and Khaled Abubakar, an imam at the central mosque, and another Muslim official spoke of about 400 bodies taken to the mosque. A Christian clergyman spoke of "several hundred" killed.
Corpses that were still visible in large numbers on Sunday had all been removed from the streets of the town and buried by Monday.[...]
"It is important that this thing doesn't go beyond Jos and we need you to tell the youth this," Bankole told Muslim leaders at the mosque meeting.
Thousands of people sought refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks after the Jos troubles, according to the Red Cross.
The clashes were triggered by a rumour Friday that the majority-Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost a local election to the mainly Christian Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), according to a police spokesman.
Muslims and Christians for the most part cohabit peacefully in Nigeria.
Except when Muslims have to deal with them as democratic equals, in which case they -- that is, the "youth" -- go on rampages, killing hundreds.
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