Nigeria clash death toll rises to 40

The death toll from a clash between security forces and members of an Islamic sect in northern Nigeria has climbed to 40, even as the region limped back to normalcy.

The death toll from a clash between security forces and members of an Islamic sect in northern Nigeria has climbed to 40, even as the region limped back to normalcy.

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The Red Cross director of operations in Nigeria Adamu Abubakar said he counted 40 dead bodies at the mortuary while the country's police spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu gave the number of dead people as 38.

The accounts on casualty figures were conflicting in the violence in the state of Bauchi, with an independent reporter at the scene saying he had counted 67 bodies.

Ojukwu said that situation has returned to normal in the area following extra effort by the police.

He said the security has been beefed up in neighbouring states of Plateau and Adamawa where similar outbreak of violence was witnessed in the past.

The violence in Bauchi started on Monday when a sect called Kala-Kato, an off-shoot of another notorious group Maitatsine, called for the destruction of another faction in a sermon.

Periodically, religious violence erupts in northern Nigerian states.

The Kala-Kato sect rejects modernity, including Western-style education and medicine and seeks the adoption of Sharia Islamic law all over Nigeria, which has an equal population of Christians and Muslims.