At least ten dead after clashes in Nigeria

January 18, 2010 According to reports, at least ten people were killed in the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, after clashes between Christian and Muslim gangs. This comes a year after similar violence last year killed hundreds.

The fighting began when Christian youths demonstrated against the building of a mosque in Nassarawa Gwom district, which is predominantly Christian. Houses and cars were set ablaze, according to eyewitness reports.

"I cannot give casualty figures now until my men complete their full investigation. Thirty-five people were arrested," said Gregory Anyating, police commissioner.

"Ten bodies have so far been brought to the hospital, some with gunshot wounds," an unnamed nurse at the Jos University Teaching Hospital told the Agence France-Presse news agency, adding that six people had been admitted with deep wounds. Some reports, however, put the number of dead as high as twenty.

In November of 2008, violence erupted throughout Jos, killing hundreds of people, after a dispute over an election. It remains, to date, the deadliest fighting between Christian and Muslim gangs in the country.