The 2008 Jos riots were riots involving Christians and Muslims over the result of a local election on November 28 and 29, 2008 in Jos, a community in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria.[1][2] Two days of rioting left over 400 injured and 381 killed.[3] The Nigerian army arrived on the morning of the 30th, and order was restored.[4]
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Electoral workers did not publicly list the winners of the elections, and rumors began that the election was won by the candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), barrister Timothy Gyang Buba,[5] defeating the candidate for the All Nigerian Peoples Party. People from the largely Muslim Hausa community, began protesting even before the results were released, and started to attack Christian homes and churches by midnight. Violence escalated between them and the Christians, who largely supported Buba.[6]
The rioting led to the death of over 381 people in central Nigeria in only two days of clashing,[7] and several homes, mosques, churches and a seminary were damaged or burned by mobs.[4][8] The Nigerian Red Cross Society reported that 10,000 people fled their homes due to the riots,[2] and were living in government-provided shelters.[6] Nigerian soldiers were sent into Jos to break up the fighting and create a buffer zone between the Christians and Muslims.[9]
Jonah Jang, the governor of the Plateau State, imposed a 24-hour curfew on four districts of the city, and soldiers are permitted to "shoot on sight" in order to prevent more violence.[6] Flights to and from Jos were cancelled and roads to the north were blocked.[4]
Similar riots in 2001 between Christians and Muslims in Jos also killed hundreds.[4][10] A 2004 riot in Yelwa, another town in Plateau State resulted in the so-called Yelwa Massacre. Fighting in the north-central Kaduna State when it tried to impose shari'a law in 2000, resulted in the partition of Kaduna. This was followed by the Kaduna riots of November 2002, resulting from Nigeria's hosting of the Miss World contest, which one of its contestants had won the previous year.[11]
Many armed youths of both sides were arrested at military roadblocks.[9] Police estimated that as many as 500 were arrested on Saturday, November 29, alone.[4]
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