ONITSHA (Nigeria), Feb 23: At least 138 Nigerians died in five days of rioting by Muslims and Christians across Africa’s most populous nation, where uncertainty over the political future is exacerbating ethnic and religious tensions.

In mainly Christian Onitsha in the southeast, at least 85 people were killed in two days of mob violence, human rights group the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) said on Thursday.

Christian youths rampaged through the streets attacking Muslims with cutlasses and setting fire to them with petrol to avenge the killing of at least 46 people, mostly Christians, by Muslim mobs in the north.

“Dead bodies were littered in various parts of Onitsha. We counted 60 on Tuesday and 25 on Wednesday,” said Emeka Umeh, head of CLO in Anambra state, where Onitsha is located.

“The majority of victims were Hausas but some Ibos were killed too,” Umeh said. He gave a detailed breakdown of numbers of bodies sighted in specific areas.

The Hausa are the main ethnic group in northern Nigeria and most of them are Muslims, while the Ibo are the dominant tribe in the southeast and they are almost all Christians.

—Reuters