Libyan leader: Nigeria should split into 2 nations: WOW!

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya's leader said nothing would stop ethnic violence in Nigeria except splitting the oil-rich nation into Muslim and Christian states, the official news agency reported Tuesday.

Moammar Gadhafi told a group of African student leaders in Tripoli that the violence in Nigeria is a "deep-rooted conflict of a religious nature" that requires a radical solution.

He said Nigeria's leaders must consider splitting the country along the model of the 1947 India-Pakistan partition, which he said put an end to violence between Muslims and Hindus there.

Nigeria has seen two outbursts of violence between Muslims and Christians this year, where men, women and children were slaughtered. The violence mostly involves revenge attacks, but growing religious hatred, political and ethnic rivalries and poverty have fueled it.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is almost evenly split between Sunni Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. The recent bloodshed has been happening in central Nigeria, where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of the nation's fertile center.

"Nothing would stop these waterfalls of blood, the burning of houses of worship — whether churches or mosques — in Nigeria except if (a leader emulates the India-Pakistan partition and) creates a state for Muslims and another for Christians," Gadhafi said, according to JANA, the official news agency.

He said the solution was painful but should be reached through agreement, not fighting or more bloodshed.

Gadhafi is known for unusual declarations. Last month, he called for "holy war" against Switzerland ostensibly because of a recent Swiss referendum banning the construction of new mosque minarets.

During Israel's offensive in Gaza last year, he urged Arab leaders to let their citizens travel to the territory to fight Israel. But he then said the world's Jews deserved their own homeland — albeit in a state shared with Palestinians called "Isratine."