 Herders
attack villagers in sectarian killings
8th Mar 2010
Nigeria's acting
president has ordered security forces to hunt down
those behind clashes involving Muslim herders and
Christian villagers in which more than 300 people
may have been killed.
Hundreds killed in Nigerian
sectarian violence The latest unrest in Plateau
state comes at a difficult time, with Acting leader
Goodluck Jonathan is trying to assert his authority
while ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua remains too
sick to govern.
Villagers in Dogo Nahawa, just south of the state
capital Jos, said Hausa-Fulani herders from
surrounding hills attacked, shooting into the air
before cutting those who came out of their homes
with machetes.
A Red Cross official said at least two other nearby
communities were also targeted, in an area close to
where sectarian clashes killed hundreds of people in
January.
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Plateau State
Commissioner for Information Gregory Yenlong said
more than 300 people, including women and children,
had died.
Eyewitnesses say some of the bodies, which included
women and children, were charred, while others had
machete wounds across their faces. Aid workers said
some had been shot.
Four days of sectarian clashes in January between
mobs armed with guns, knives and machetes killed
hundreds of people in Jos, which lies at the
crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and
predominantly Christian south.
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