Fresh unrest erupted Saturday in Niger, with French citizens told to stay indoors amid anger in several Muslim nations over a Prophet Mohammed cartoon published by Charlie Hebdo this week. Four people were killed on Friday at protests in Zinder, reports FRANCE 24.
Police fired tear gas at a fresh demonstration in Niger on Saturday against French weekly Charlie Hebdo's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, according to AFP. At least 1,000 youths assembled at the grand mosque in the capital Niamey, some of them throwing rocks at police while others burned tyres and chanted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest").
At least two churches were set on fire and France's embassy in Niamey warned French citizens to stay indoors after rioters also ransacked several French-linked businesses, including telephone kiosks run by Orange.
"Be very cautious, avoid going out," the embassy said on its website.
The unrest came a day after four people were killed and at least 45 others were injured in protests in Niger's second city of Zinder, with demonstrators ransacking three churches and torching the French cultural centre.
A doctor based in Zinder told AFP that all of the dead and three of the injured had gunshot wounds.
"We've never seen that in living memory in Zinder," a local administration official said. "It's a black Friday."
There was also bloodshed in Karachi, Pakistan, where three people were injured when protesters clashed with police outside the French consulate, officials said. Among them was an AFP photographer, who was shot in the back.
Washington condemned the violence, stressing the "universal" right of the press to publish any kind of information freely.
"No act of legitimate journalism, however offensive some might find it, justifies an act of violence," said State Department spokesman Jeffrey Rathke.
As protesters in Dakar and Mauritania torched French flags, Qatar and Bahrain warned that the new Prophet Mohammed cartoon published Wednesday by the French satirical weekly could fuel hatred.
The latest issue of Charlie Hebdo features a cartoon of Mohammed on its cover holding a "Je Suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) sign under the headline "All is forgiven."
It was the first edition since brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi gunned down 12 people in an attack on the magazine's Paris offices on January 7th.
Distributor MLP said the edition had sold 1.9 million copies so far, with a total of five million to be printed, compared with its usual sales of around 60,000. Newsstands in France quickly sold out of the issue in the wake of the attacks.
The image has angered many Muslims as any depictions of Mohammed are considered by some to be offensive.
On the Muslim weekly day of prayers, thousands flooded the streets of Bamako Friday in response to calls by leading clerics and Mali's main Islamic body, chanting "Hands off my prophet" and "I am Muslim and I love my prophet."
In Jordan's Amman, around 2,500 protesters set off from Al-Husseini mosque under tight security, holding banners that read "insulting the prophet is global terrorism".
There were clashes between protesters and riot police in Algiers, where up to 3,000 marchers chanted "We are all Mohammed," with some also shouting their support for the Kouachi brothers.
AFP photographer Asif Hassan, a policeman and a local TV cameraman were injured in Karachi when clashes broke out there between police and protesters.
A police official said the violence began when authorities prevented some 350 protesters from approaching the French consulate in the sprawling port city.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, protesters in Peshawar and Multan burned French flags on the streets while rallies were also held in Islamabad and Lahore.
In Dakar, the capital of Senegal, police fired tear gas grenades to disperse about 1,000 protesters who chanted "Allahu Akbar" and torched a French flag.
In Nouakchott in Mauritania, thousands marched chanting, "We are here to defend the prophet." Some set fire to a French flag after security forces prevented them from reaching France's embassy, witnesses said.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz addressed the marchers, condemning the controversial cartoon as "an attack on our religion and on all religions".
Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated quietly in Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, some with banners reading "Islam is a religion of peace!"
In Khartoum, hundreds poured out of the Grand Mosque and marched across the adjacent square, chanting "Expel the French ambassador. Victory to the Prophet of God!"
In Lebanon's flashpoint city of Tripoli, 70 people marched with banners bearing the name of the prophet and chanting.
Prayer leader Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahimi addressed hundreds of worshippers in Baddawi, on the outskirts of the city, saying: "May God punish this newspaper and those who back it."
Protests also erupted in areas of conflict-hit Syria held by rebels and jihadists with demonstrators demanding "respect for religions", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A protest in Tehran was cancelled, with no official reason given, as senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani told worshippers the cartoon's publication amounted to "savagery".
Qatar branded the drawing as "offensive". The cartoon was reprinted by several European papers in a show of solidarity with the victims of last week's attack.