Story number 1 for 24 Feb 2000

We begin today in Nigeria where new outbreaks of violence have erupted in Kaduna. The riots between Christians and Muslims came over demands for the introduction of Islamic law. The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Mark Kelly says during the riot, a seminary student was killed and the mob breached the wall of the Baptist Seminary compound. “People are waiting to see how things develop right now. There are news reports that there was additional violence in the city. Nigerian Baptist leaders have been able to come back to the campus. They discovered that the administration/academic buildings, the chapel all were burned, but part of the campus are still intact.” Kelly says the tensions are growing, and the believers need support. “There are a lot of tensions between ethnic groups as well as religious groups, and it would be awfully easy for this violence to spread to the rest of the country…people are asking that we pray that lives will be spared, that the violence will end quickly.”