215 Dead in Nigeria Riots Over Pageant

At least 215 people were killed and 12,000 left homeless in four days of rioting in Nigeria sparked by the Miss World pageant, Red Cross officials said Sunday.

No new Muslim-Christian clashes were reported Sunday after pageant contestants left the country and flew to London, where organizers have moved the event. However, the governor of Kaduna, the center point of the rioting, warned that anyone found to be inciting violence would be shot on sight.

The Nigerian Red Cross counted 215 bodies on the streets and in mortuaries in Kaduna, 100 miles north of the capital, Abuja, said Emmanuel Ijewere, president of the group. Previous estimates said about 100 people were killed.

An unknown number of other bodies were believed to have been buried by family members, he said.

The violence began after a newspaper said last week that Islam’s founding prophet would have chosen a Miss World contestant for a wife.

On Sunday, Kaduna residents tried to recover what they could from their destroyed homes.

At least 22 churches and eight mosques were destroyed in the mayhem, said Shehu Sani of the Civil Rights Congress in Kaduna.