5 killed in anti-Charlie Hebdo riots in Niger
Niamey, Jan 18: Five people were killed in violent riots in Niger's capital over France's Charlie Hebdo weekly, with angry crowds setting fire to churches.
The protesters torched at least eight houses of worship in Niamey. Bars, hotels and various businesses under non-Muslim ownership or bearing signs of French companies were also targeted, an AFP correspondent reported.
It was the second day of violence in the west African country, after five people were killed and 45 injured in protests in Niger's second city of Zinder on Friday.
"Some of us stayed barricaded in our homes. I have never been so scared in my life," a Christian mechanic in the capital told AFP. "The government must put a stop to this," he added.
"It
doesn't
look
good
for
us."
By
yesterday
evening
calm
had
returned
to
Niamey,
where
police
were
stationed
outside
the
city's
cathedral
and
other
religious
buildings.
"In
Niamey,
the
tally
is
five
dead,
all
civilians,"
Niger's
President
Mahamadou
Issoufou
said
in
a
speech
broadcast
on
state
television,
appealing
for
calm.
He
added
that
the
death
toll
in
Zinder
had
climbed
from
four
to
five
after
a
body
was
found
"burned
inside
a
church".
"Thos
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, whose country has defended the Charlie Hebdo cover as freedom of expression, also condemned "the use of violence, today in Niamey and yesterday in Zinder".
Around 255 Christians were placed under military protection in Zinder yesterday, sheltered in barracks, a Western security source said. Another 70 had sought refuge in an evangelical church protected by police.
Earlier in the day around 100 helmeted riot police stood in front of the Niamey cathedral to protect it from a crowd of stone-throwing youths.
"They burned everything after smashing anything that was glass on the road," said Kiema Soumaila, manager of the Toulousain, a well-known bar in Niamey.
France's embassy in its poverty-stricken former colony warned French citizens to stay indoors after rioters ransacked several French-linked businesses, including telephone kiosks run by Orange.
PTI