Sixteen

Sixteen dead as Nigeria chaos grows

Ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria claimed 16 more victims Tuesday, with gunmen killing eight in the north and a mob torching an Islamic school in the south, as a fuel strike added to the deadly tension. Amid the sectarian and social turmoil, Nobel literature prize laureate Wole Soyinka, one of the country's most respected voices, warned that the continent's most populous nation was heading toward civil war. A two-day old general strike has paralysed the country and sent President Goodluck Jonathan's government - already battling a spate of bloody attacks by the Islamist sect Boko Haram - into crisis mode. Analysts said the tension in Africa's top oil producer contributed to rising world oil prices, with Brent North Sea crude gaining 83 cents to $113.28 a barrel on Tuesday. In the latest attack blamed on Boko Haram, gunmen killed eight people, including five police officers, in a pub in Potiskum town in the northern state of Yobe before speeding off on a motorcycle. A doctor said eight bodies were brought to the local morgue, including "five policemen, a bartender, a customer and a 10-year-old girl". Police confirmed the shooting but did not give a casualty toll.