At lease five killed as armed protesters angered by cartoon of prophet Muhammad go on rampage in capital

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

At least five people died when rioters burned churches and cars and attacked French-linked businesses across Niger on Saturday, in violent protests against the publication of a cartoon of Muhammad on the cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine.

President Mahamadou Issoufou said all five of the dead were civilians, with four of them killed inside burned churches or bars.

Ten people have died in two days of violence across the west African nation. Five died and 45 were injured in clashes on Friday in Niger’s second largest city, Zinder, where a French cultural centre and cafe were also hit.

The majority of Niger’s 17 million population is Muslim, but the country is also home to many Christians. Last year, the United Nations declared the land-locked country north of Nigeria the poorest nation on earth.

As protesters in Niamey burned the French flag, and the embassy there urged French citizens to stay at home, France’s president, François Hollande, reiterated his country’s commitment to freedom of expression.

“I’m thinking of countries where sometimes they don’t understand what freedom of expression is because they have been deprived of it. But also, we have supported these countries in their fight against terrorism,” said Hollande, on a visit to Tulle, central France.

The flare-up on the edge of the Sahara desert was the most violent of a string of protests across the Muslim world at the weekend, all denouncing the magazine’s cover. It showed a weeping Muhammad carrying a sign saying, “I am Charlie” under the words: “All is forgiven”.

A week earlier, two gunmen had shot dead 12 journalists, workers and police at the offices of the satirical magazine, claiming that the attacks were “avenging the prophet” for past insults.

In Niger, the killings were denounced by Muslims horrified that their faith had been hijacked by terrorists, but few were happy with the Charlie Hebdo response either. Most Muslims believe Muhammad should not be depicted, and find satirical cartoons particularly offensive.

From Khartoum to Russia’s Muslim North Caucasus, and across the west African countries of Mali, Senegal and Mauritania, crowds took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations after Friday prayers. In Algiers and the Jordanian capital, Amman, though, protesters clashed with police, and in Pakistan and Niger there was serious violence.

In the Pakistani port city of Karachi city, police battled activists from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, who were trying to enter the French consulate. Television cameras captured some brandishing guns, as police fired in the air and doused the crowd with water cannon. At least three people were injured, including AFP photographer Asif Hassan.

The rioters in Niger set up roadblocks, attacked a police station and burned two police cars, after police banned a meeting called by Islamic leaders and arrested four imams. Another protest march has been called for Sunday.

“They offended our prophet Muhammad. That’s what we didn’t like,” Amadou Abdoul Ouahab, a demonstrator, told Reuters. “This is the reason why we have asked Muslims to come, so that we can explain this to them, but the state refused. That’s why we’re angry today.”

Some people carried signs saying: “I am not Charlie”, denouncing the slogan of solidarity with the magazine.

The group tore up bibles inside churches, ransacked bars, hotels and businesses under non-Muslim ownership or linked to France, including telephone kiosks run by Orange.

“As soon as the protesters started towards the grand mosque we knew this was coming,” Kiema Soumaila, manager of Niamey’s Toulousain bar, told AFP. “They burned everything after smashing anything that was glass on the road.”

The rampage targeted seven evangelical churches in Niamey, where riot police got ready to protect the cathedral.

“Some of us stayed barricaded in our homes. I have never been so scared in my life,” said one onlooker, a Christian mechanic. “The government must put a stop to this. It doesn’t look good for us.”