Ten people killed, churches and non-Muslim-owned businesses attacked in Niger over Charlie Hebdo cartoons

The Guardian (UK) reports:

President Mahamadou Issoufou said all five of [today's] dead were civilians, with four of them killed inside burned churches or bars.

Ten people have died in two days of violence across the west African nation. Five died and 45 were injured in clashes on Friday in Niger's second largest city, Zinder, where a French cultural centre and cafe were also hit….

[Rioters] tore up bibles inside churches, ransacked bars, hotels and businesses under non-Muslim ownership or linked to France, including telephone kiosks run by Orange.

"As soon as the protesters started towards the grand mosque we knew this was coming," Kiema Soumaila, manager of Niamey's Toulousain bar, told AFP. "They burned everything after smashing anything that was glass on the road."

The rampage targeted seven evangelical churches in Niamey, where riot police got ready to protect the cathedral.