Nigeria Miss World riots spread to Abuja
Friday, 22 November 2002 22:49
Muslims protesting after Friday prayers set fire to cars in the centre of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, as anger grew over the Miss World beauty pageant.
They had emerged angrily from the National Mosque, a short distance from the hotel that serves as a base for the pageant contestants.
It was not clear what had provoked the trouble.
The 92 Miss World contestants were confined to their hotel during the unrest.
Miss World organisers earlier insisted that the show would go ahead on 7 December, despite rioting in the northern city of Kaduna which has left more than 100 dead.
Fighting there spread today despite a curfew imposed by the authorities.
Civilians were seen fleeing streets littered with corpses, heading towards police barracks to seek shelter from the fighting.
The rioting started when Muslim youths burned down a newspaper office after the publication of a 'blasphemous' article which opined that the Prophet Mohammed would have liked to marry a Miss World beauty queen.
Many Muslims were offended by the presence of the contestants in the country during Ramadan.
After the first incident, fighting broke out between Muslim and Christian communities. Churches and mosques were burned in the violence. The Nigerian Red Cross confirmed 100 deaths, and said that at least 521 injured people had been evacuated to hospital.
The organisers of the pageant said that they had been told the riots had nothing to do with Miss World, and the contest would be held regardless.
- Morning Ireland: Dan Isaacs, BBC Correspondent in Lagos, discusses the violence overshadowing the Miss World event in Nigeria
- News At One: Linda Duffy, Ireland's representative at the controversial Miss World contest to be held in Nigeria on 7 December, talks about her experiences since her arrival earlier this week
- 9.00 News: Watch the video
