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Maiduguri, Nigeria (Reuters) - Rampaging Muslims burned down scores of hotels and bars in a northern Nigerian city in reaction to the lunar eclipse which they blamed on sinners, residents said on Wednesday.
Paramilitary police battled gangs of Muslim youths in the streets of the largely Islamic city of Maiduguri for hours on Tuesday night.
Residents said at least 40 hotels or drinking houses were set ablaze. Similar violence was reported in Barma town 80 km (50 miles) away where youths chanting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) took to the streets.
''The immoral acts committed in these places are responsible for this eclipse,'' police quoted a youth leader as saying.
Police chief Uba Bala Ringim told Reuters in Maiduguri that five people had been detained and more arrests were expected.
Religious violence has been a major
problem in the largely Islamic north over the past year. Hundreds of people
were killed in two bouts of Muslim-Christian bloodletting in the northern
city of Kaduna over plans to introduce Islamic sharia law in the area.
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