Maiduguri, Nigeria: Nigerian authorities collected hundreds of bodies from streets of Maiduguri on Friday following days of clashes with members of a radical Islamic sect.
State government and health ministry officials piled the corpses, some of them swollen after lying in the streets for days, onto open trucks as police and soldiers patrolled.
"As of yesterday we had more than 200 dead bodies," Aliyu Maikano, northeastern zone disaster management officer for the Nigerian Red Cross, told, adding that bodies were still being collected.
The toll in Maiduguri brings to at least 300 the total number of people killed in violence that has erupted in several states around northern Nigeria since Sunday.
The authorities are hoping the killing of sect leader Mohammed Yusuf, whose Boko Haram movement wants a wider adoption of sharia (Islamic law) across Africa`s most populous nation, will bring an end to the six-day uprising by his followers.
Yusuf, 39, was shot dead while in police detention late on Thursday. Officials have said he died in a shoot-out while trying to escape but rights groups have condemned what appeared to have been an execution-style killing.
Hundreds of people gathered to see Yusuf`s corpse, laid on the ground in front of Maiduguri police headquarters alongside the bodies of other presumed Boko Haram members.
Bureau Report
