REUTERS - The United
States on Friday said it was concerned by the deaths of Nigerians in clashes
between Shi'ite Muslims and police earlier this week and what it
called the
apparently disproportionate response of the police in the violence.
Police said
nine people were killed in the clashes during which officers opened fire on
members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) taking part in a procession in
the northern city of Kano on Monday, but the minority sect said dozens died.
Security analysts
have drawn some parallels between the IMN and Boko Haram, the Sunni Muslim
jihadist group whose insurgency began in 2009.
The violence
was the latest in a series of incidents involving the sect. A judicial inquiry
in August reported that 347 IMN members were killed and buried in mass graves
after clashes with the army in December 2015, and two sect members were killed
in processions in Kaduna state in October.
"The
United States is deeply concerned by the deaths of dozens of Nigerians during
clashes between individuals participating in a Shia procession and the Nigerian
Police Force in Kano State," a statement by the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Nigeria said.
"While
the matter is still under investigation, we are troubled by the apparent
disproportionate response by the police," said the statement, issued by
spokesman John Kirby, which also called for "calm and restraint on all
sides".
The U.S. said
Nigeria's government should conduct an investigation and "bring to account
anyone responsible for violating the law".
Last month,
the government in Kaduna state, which is next to Kano state, declared IMN as an
"unlawful society" on the grounds that its processions were a danger
to peace, and said anyone convicted of being a member of the sect could be
imprisoned for up to seven years.
Nigeria,
Africa's most populous nation of 180 million inhabitants, combines a
predominantly Christian south and mainly Sunni Muslim north.
Human Rights
Watch estimates that IMN, whose 1980s founders were inspired by the Islamic
Revolution in Shi'ite Iran, has around 3 million members. The sect's leader,
Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, has been held without charge since December following the
clashes with the army in Zaria.
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