Get Guardian on GoogleA mob burnt a woman to death in central Nigeria over the weekend after accusing her of blasphemy against Islam, police said Monday.
The woman “was set ablaze” on Saturday in a “mob attack” after she made comments about the Prophet Mohammed, police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun in Niger state said in a statement.
He said the woman was a food vendor named Amaye from northwest Nigerian Katsina state.
Abiodun added that the police condemned any act of “jungle justice” and urged members of the public to remain calm during the search for the attackers.
Sharia law operates alongside common law in 12 predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria — including Niger — and blasphemy is punishable by death.
In many cases the accused are killed by mobs without going through the legal process, though the attack on the weekend is not thought to have involved a legal process.
Such attacks are rare though a butcher in the northern city of Sokoto was stoned to death in June 2023 and a Christian college student was killed by Muslim students a year earlier, both after blasphemy allegations.
