TUNIS, Tunisia - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi condemned the current Nigerian religious clashes on Monday, saying their perpetrators were straying from Islam and Christianity.
Fifty-one people have been killed and more than 500 wounded so far in three days of religious and ethnic clashes around the central Nigerian city of Jos, a Nigerian government statement said earlier in the day.
The immediate spark for the bloodletting was a minor quarrel between a Christian and some Muslims near a mosque during Friday prayers.
"On behalf of Africa, we denounce this action which has nothing to do with either Islam or Christianity. Those who carried it out are straying away from both Christianity and Islam," said Gaddafi.
Gaddafi, whose remarks were in a statement read on Libyan state television, added that the clashes would benefit only "Nigeria's enemies who want to...damage all Africa."
The Libyan leader has been taking a close interest in the internal affairs of every African nation since taking a leading role in the project to promote a new pan-African body.
African leaders formally adopted a treaty in Zambia in July to create the African Union, a successor to the 38-year-old Organisation of African Unity.
15:00 09-10-01
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