Explosion in Southern Nigerian City of Sapele Injures Two People

Two people were wounded yesterday in an explosion at a mosque in the Nigerian city of Sapele, located in the mainly Christian south, a police spokesman said.

The explosion at the mosque in the Niger Delta oil region wasn’t caused by a bomb attack, Charles Muka, a police spokesman, said by phone today.

“If it was a bomb, we will see the particles,” Muka said. “We have combed the place. We found nothing to show it was a bomb.”

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous nation of more than 160 million people, is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south. More than 14,000 people have been killed in ethnic and religious clashes in the West African nation from 1999 to 2009, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net