(CNN) -- The message blaring out of the speakers on the van was stark: "Any black person who is hiding in Rosarno should get out. If we catch you, we will kill you."
Abdul Rashid Muhammad Mahmoud Iddris got out.

He's one of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of African migrants taken by bus out of the Italian town over the weekend after violent demonstrations shook southern Italy.

The unrest was among the worst of its kind in recent Italian history, said a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

"We have not witnessed such protests in a long time," said Flavio Di Giacomo. "There were several thousand, but I don't know exactly how many people were involved."

Iddris lived with other migrants in an abandoned factory outside Rosarno, he said.

On Thursday, a BMW pulled up outside the factory, a man got out, shot one of the Africans living there, 26-year-old Ayiva Saibou, and drove off.

The next morning, Friday, the immigrants tried again, playing drums as they tried to march from the factory to Rosarno's town hall, he said.
That's when they heard the warning.

"People took a van, an information van with speakers, saying any black person who is hiding in Rosarno should get out, if they catch anyone they will kill him," Iddris said.

Italian media have speculated that the Mafia was behind the shooting that triggered the violence.

But Di Giacomo said it was not important whether they were or not.

"We don't know if the Mafia is involved, but the point is not really the Mafia," he said. "The point is that the conditions for these migrants are so inhuman that they can lead to some violent reactions."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01/11/italy.migrant.violence/index.html