Nigeria's Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday ordered soldiers to be sent into the central city of Jos to restore order after clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs left nearly 200 people dead.
Published: 5:40PM GMT 19 Jan 2010
Police imposed a 24-hour curfew to ease tensions and prevent a repetition of the Nov 2008 clashes, in which hundreds of residents died in the country's worst sectarian fighting in years.
The latest fighting broke out at the weekend over the building of a new mosque.
Jos has been a hotbed of sectarian tensions in recent years with hundreds killed. It lies in the country's volatile middle, between the Muslim majority north and the country's south, where the population is primarily Christian or followers of traditional local religions.
"At the moment the military have moved in, in concert with the police, to normalise the situation," said Saraki Murtar, a security official.
The vice-president has also ordered the government's top security chiefs to travel to Jos to assess the situation.
It was not clear whether President Umaru Yar'Adua, who is in hospital in Saudi Arabia, had been briefed on the clashes.
Mr Jonathan's military order is the first time he has used executive powers since the president left Nigeria for medical treatment nearly two months ago.
Mr Jonathan has been presiding over cabinet meetings and representing the president at official functions, but Mr Yar'Adua has not formally transferred powers over to him.
A federal court ruled last week that Mr Jonathan can perform all the executive duties for ailing Mr Yar'Adua without an official transfer of powers.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/7028894/Dozens-killed-as-Muslim-and-Christian-gangs-clash-in-Nigeria.html
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