Over 20 people were killed in revenge attacks on Muslims in Nigeria recently as religious riots intensified a day after the country's leading Anglican archbishop warned Muslims that they did not have a "monopoly on violence".

Archbishop Akinola heads the Christian Association of Nigeria. The Christian retaliation came after his widely publicised statement warning that the Association might be unable to contain its "restive youths".

Christian mobs with machetes and guns roamed the streets of the mainly Christian city of Onitsha. They were retaliating for Muslim violence earlier in the week which killed dozens of people, destroyed churches and leaving thousands homeless.

"May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly on violence in this nation," Akinola had said.

Nigeria is roughly divided between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian south. Thousands of people have died in religious violence since 2000. The Archbishop asserts that there is a long-standing agenda to make Nigeria an Islamic nation