Muslim pupils at a secondary school in northeastern Nigeria's Gombe state beat a teacher to death March 21 after accusing her of desecrating the Koran, police and witnesses said. Oluwatoyin Olusase, a Christian, was apparently overseeing an "Islamic Religious Knowledge" when the incident occurred. "We have received information that a female teacher has been lynched by her students," Gombe state police commissioner Joseph Ibi said. "We are investigating the report."

At least five people were killed and several churches burned down in February 2006 in the neighboring state of Bauchi after Muslims claimed a Christian teacher in a secondary school had tried to confiscate a Koran from a student who was reading it during class. At least 15,000 people have died in religious, communal and political violence in Africa's most populous country since 1999, when Nigeria returned to democracy after 30 years of nearly unbroken military rule. (Reuters, March 21)

See our last post on Nigeria.