Riots in Nigeria leave 103 dead

Thousands of Nigerians sheltered in barracks in the northern city of Maiduguri yesterday after days of clashes involving Muslim rebels which have killed at least 150 people across four states.

Members of a local Islamic group have burned churches, police stations and a prison and set off petrol bombs near residential areas in the unrest. Local residents said 103 people, most of them rioters, had been killed in Maiduguri alone. The rioters are supporters of a radical Islamic preacher opposed to Western education.

The latest unrest was triggered when some members of the group called Boko Haram, which wants a wider adoption of Islamic sharia across Africa's most populous nation, were arrested in Bauchi state.