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Nigerian police emergency vehicle (icon image)
Photo: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/ AFP
Again and again there are brutal clashes in northern Nigeria, which are often sparked off by religious issues.
A recent case from the northwestern state of Sokoto, however, appears particularly gruesome.
There, a lynch mob cruelly killed a Christian student and burned her body.
Dozens of Muslim students stoned her out of anger over an entry in a public Whatsapp group, the police said on Thursday.
"The students forcibly took the victim out of the security room where she was hidden by the school authorities, killed her, and set the building on fire."
According to the information, the student's statement in an audio message was taken as an insult to the Prophet Mohammed.
Footage circulated online showed the dead student in a pink dress lying face down between dozens of rocks.
The police announced that they would evaluate the videos and arrest those involved.
So far there have been two arrests.
The state government ordered the school to close immediately to determine "the remote and immediate causes of the incident."
According to the British Guardian, the police had not even succeeded in using tear gas to dissuade the crowd from the woman.
Sokoto is one of several northern states in Nigeria that adopted Sharia law in 2000.
The Islamic courts work alongside the state judicial system and have handed down death sentences for adultery, blasphemy and homosexuality.
But there were no executions.
However, cases of deadly lynching without a trial are more common.
Separation of the country at religious borders
Nigeria's population is divided into Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, as well as 300 ethnic groups.
Ethnic and religious violence has repeatedly flared up in the past.
In the north, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram is primarily responsible for numerous kidnappings for ransom, but criminal gangs also repeatedly cause unrest there.
The government of President Muhammadu Buhari can do little to counter the violence in the country.
The World Bank estimates that Nigeria's population will surpass that of the United States by 2050, reaching nearly 400 million people.
jok/AFP
