Taking a Break From All Your Worries

Calm Returns to Torn Nigerian City; Toll Unclear

After a breakout of violence in Jos between Muslim and Christian gangs, peace has finally returned to the city. Current estimates by the Human Rights Watch place the death toll at above 200, however the Plateau state commissioner, Gregory Anyating, maintains the deaths resulting from fighting numbered only 23. There is no public explanation accounting for this difference.

Meanwhile, leading Muslim official Mohammed Ishaq, secretary of the Ulama Council, said he counted 70 bodies at a mosque alone. Although tensions have diminished, possibly due to the increased military and police presence in the city, the sectarian rift has by no means disappeared.