Kano, April 18
Violent protests erupted across Nigeria’s largely Muslim north today as youths angered at President Goodluck Jonathan’s election victory torched churches and homes and set up burning barricades. The vote count showed Jonathan, from the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, had beaten Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler from the north, in the first round.

Observers have called the poll the fairest in decades in Africa’s most populous nation but Buhari’s supporters accuse the ruling party of rigging. Results show how politically polarized the country is, with Buhari sweeping states in the Muslim north and Jonathan winning the largely Christian south.

Authorities in the northern state of Kaduna imposed a 24-hour curfew after protesters set fire to the residence of Vice-President Namadi Sambo in the town of Zaria and forced their way into the central prison, releasing inmates.

The body of a small boy shot in the chest by a stray bullet was brought to a police station, a witness said. “They have destroyed our cars and our houses. I had to run for my life and I am now in my neighbour’s house,” said Dora

Ogbebor, a resident of Zaria whose origins are in the south. Plumes of smoke rose into the air in parts of the state capital as protesters set fire to barricades of tyres. Security forces fired in the air and used teargas to disperse groups of youths shouting “We want Buhari, we want Buhari”.

A spokesman for Buhari said he had not yet made any statement on the disturbances. Soldiers used whips to disperse people in the streets of Kano, the most populous city in the north. Protesters hurled stones in the backstreets. Several churches were burned and authorities imposed a curfew.

An armoured personnel carrier, armed police and soldiers formed a barricade around the electoral commission office. “We will have the situation under control soon,” said Agbo Omaji, a police inspector securing the electoral office. Soldiers fired in the air and helicopters flew overhead in the central city of Jos, where thousands have been killed in sectarian violence over the past decade.

Nigeria has a history of rigged and violent elections but Saturday’s vote was deemed by many Nigerians, and foreign observers, to have been a vast improvement on the past, with the voting process orderly and little unrest on the day itself. “Election day showed a generally peaceful and orderly process,” said chief European Union election observer Alojz Peterle. EU observers said 2007 elections were not credible.

Peterle called for restraint in northern Nigeria and said all Nigerians should respect the election process.

A Reuters tally of results put Jonathan on nearly 23 million votes to just over 12 million for Buhari. The Independent National Electoral Commission was expected to announce all the results on Monday and to formally declare Jonathan the winner.

The outright win for Jonathan could ease worries over potential disruptions to crude exports from Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, far away from the disturbances in the north. — Reuters

Kampala, April 18
The Ugandan police fired teargas today to disperse rioters pelting motorists with stones and arrested 17 opposition leaders taking part in a “walk to work” protest against soaring fuel prices.

President Yoweri Museveni had warned he would quash any protest and among those arrested were three of his challengers in the February elections who were detained as they left home to march and keep alive a fledgling week-old protest movement.

Kizza Besigye, Museveni’s perennial bete noire, had barely left his house when he was detained, in a repeat of a scenario last Monday. “Besigye was arrested as he left his house this morning and is being held in Kasangati” police station on the outskirts of Kampala, Alice Alaso, secretary-general of his Forum for Democratic Change party, said.

Nabakooba’s deputy Vincent Ssekate said Besigye-Museveni’s main challenger in the February 18 polls-was brought in because he was being investigated over a number of cases unrelated to the protests. The police fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse the rioters, an AFP correspondent reported. — AFP

United Nations, April 18
The United Nations has reached an agreement for providing humanitarian aid to the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, which has seen weeks of fighting between the forces of Muammar Gaddafi and the rebels.

"I am encouraged to report that, as a result, the United Nations yesterday reached an agreement on a humanitarian presence in Tripoli," UN chief Ban Ki-moon told reporters, during his visit to Hungary.

The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Libya Abdul Ilah Al-Khatib and the UN's top humanitarian affairs coordinator Valerie Amos visited Tripoli yesterday.

They held talks with the Libyan regime and asked them to cease hostilities to provide safe passage for people to leave and allow urgent medical supplies into the city.

Ban said the UN had already established a humanitarian presence in Benghazi and now the Libyan authorities have agreed to establish a humanitarian presence in Tripoli. "We will try to expand our humanitarian activities together with other international NGOs and humanitarian workers like the Red Cross and Red Crescent," he said.

But, Amos said she had received assurances from government authorities in Tripoli that the UN would be allowed into Misurata itself.

Noting that half a million people had fled the country and tens of thousands did not have basic needs, Ban said "we have very serious humanitarian problems". — PTI

Damascus, April 18
Fresh protests shook Syria today as thousands took to the streets a day after 11 persons were killed by security forces as the clamour for an end to martial law billowed, activists said.

Protests gripped the central city of Homs, the protest hub of Daraa in the south as well as in Jisr al-Shoughour near the northwestern city of Idleb despite pledges by the president to lift a draconian emergency law.

Activists have said Assad's vow on Saturday to lift within a week nearly five decades of emergency law were insufficient, and protests shook Syria again within hours of the presidential speech.

Protesters are also demanding the release of political prisoners and the end of the ruling Baath party's grip over the state and society as stipulated by the constitution.

Tens of thousands of mourners marched in Homs today a day after security forces fired live rounds to disperse demonstrators in the Bab Sba'a area of town, killing at least seven people, activists said. — AFP