Muslims prepared to bury their dead after deadly clashes with Christian mobs over disputed election results.

JOS, Nigeria — As tensed calm prevailed in the central city of Jos, Muslims prepared on Sunday, November 30, to bury their dead after deadly clashes with Christian mobs over disputed election results.

"So far about 400 bodies have been brought to the mosque following the outbreak of violence," Khaled Abubakar, the imam of the central mosque, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Families are coming to identify and claim the bodies, while those that can not be identified or nobody claims them will be interred by the mosque."

Hundreds of people were killed when clashes erupted between Christian and Muslim mobs late Friday after rumors that the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) had lost the local election to the federal ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

The ANPP is perceived in Jos, the capital of Plateau state, to be a predominantly Muslim party, and the PDP to be mainly Christian.

Several mosques and churches were razed in the violence and overturned and burnt-out vehicles littered the streets.

A curfew was slapped on the city with orders to the police to fire on any violator.

Soldiers patrolled the streets on foot and in jeeps to enforce the curfew.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the main mosque in the city where members of the Muslim community have been bringing their dead.

"They are still picking dead bodies outside," Al Mansur, a 53-year old farmer, told Reuters.

"Some areas were not reachable until now."

• Displaced

The clashes forced thousands of people to flee their homes to take shelter in government buildings, army barracks and religious centers.

"So far over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now seeking refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks," Dan Tom, a Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos, said.

"I can't give any figures but there are dead bodies on the streets that are yet to be evacuated.

"We are afraid of an outbreak of an epidemic if they are allowed to decompose," warned Tom.

"In these places where people are taking refuge, there is no water and no food. We call on the Nigerian emergency management agencies to come to their aid."

Nigeria, one of the world's most religiously committed nations, is divided between a Muslim north and a Christian south.

Muslims and Christians, who constitute 55 and 40 percent of Nigeria's 140 million population respectively, have lived in peace for the most part.

But ethnic and religious tensions in the country's "middle belt" have bubbled for years.

Hundreds were killed in ethnic-religious fighting in Jos in 2001.

Hundreds more died in 2004 in clashes in Yelwa, also in Plateau state, leading then President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare an emergency.

Unrest in the state has in the past triggered reprisal attacks between different ethnic and religious groups in other areas of the country.

Source: IslamOnline