Hundreds slain in primarily Christian villages in Nigeria

From ASSIST News Service
and Other Reports

      LAGOS, Nigeria — An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria following the killing of hundreds of Christians early last month in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims.
     According to Compass Direct News, the mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed March 7 with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses also were burned.
     Compass Direct News says State Information Com-missioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed about 500 persons were killed in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages.

       The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state to beat security forces that had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand.
     Compass Direct News says the attack is the latest in several religious clashes in recent months that have claimed lives and property. Plateau state is a predominantly Christian state in a nation almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The Muslim minority has contested ownership of some areas, leading to frequent clashes.
   “We were woken up by gunshots in the middle of the night, and before we knew what was happening, our houses were torched and they started hacking down people,” survivor Musa Gyang told media.
     Bishop Andersen Bok, national coordinator of the Plateau State Elders Christian Fellowship, along with group Secretary General Musa Pam, described the attack as yet another jihad and provocation on Christians.
     The Christian leaders said in a statement, “Eyewitnesses say the Hausa Fulani Muslim militants were chanting ‘Allah Akbar,’ broke into houses, cutting human beings, including children and women with their knives and cutlasses.”
    Bloomberg News reported that last month’s violence followed a similar outrbreak in Jos in mid-January. Civil Rights Congress, a Nigerian human rights group, said more than 400 people died and 4,000 people were injured in three days of clashes between Christians and Muslims.
     WORLD magazine reported that although mainstream media has portrayed last month’s massacre as retaliation for January attacks against Muslims, Christian leaders in the area say Christians did not provoke this incident, and they now worry about growing radical Islamic aggression.