Tope Akinwande in Abidjan
Red Cross volunteers have been assisting victims of violent protests which broke out in Kaduna city in northern Nigeria on Thursday (Nov 21) leaving, according to preliminary reports, dozens dead and several hundred injured.
Muslim demonstrators were protesting the hosting of the Miss World Beauty Pageant in Nigeria, scheduled for early December, as well as the publication of a story considered blasphemous in a local newspaper.
According to Patrick Bawa, information officer of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), some 50 volunteers from the Kaduna branch of the Nigerian Red Cross were dispatched to different spots in the city to offer first aid assistance to the wounded and evacuate the dead.
"Our volunteers offered first aid assistance to residents with minor injuries and evacuated the seriously wounded to the Kaduna General and Military Hospitals" says Patrick Bawa. "We have so far evacuated 521 injured people and are also assisting in transferring the dead to the mortuary."
The NRCS is working on a contingency plan should the riot spread beyond Kaduna. "Though the military authorities have been able to restore calm in Kaduna, our volunteers are on stand-by to assist in other areas should the need arise", adds Bawa.
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More on: The Nigerian Red Cross Society