GENEVA - At least 165 Nigerians died and 928 were injured in three days of ethnic and religious clashes in the central city of Jos, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday, quoting the Nigerian Red Cross.
Antonella Notari, spokeswoman at the Geneva headquarters of the Swiss-run ICRC, said the toll could rise.
"The bodies of 165 people who died were brought to various Jos hospitals," Notari told Reuters. "This is coming from the Nigerian Red Cross, figures they gave us on Monday afternoon. It was as much as they could see at the time."
Earlier, Nigeria's Plateau State government said that 80 people had died and more than 500 people had been injured.
Tension has been building in Jos for about a month. Some members of the majority Christian community of Plateau State had complained about the appointment of a Muslim at the head of the state's poverty alleviation programme.
03:40 09-11-01
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.