48 killed in religious violence in Plateau State

At least 48 people were killed when suspected Islamic militants, armed with automatic rifles and bows and arrows, attacked a mainly Christian community in Plateau State in central Nigeria earlier this week, police said.

Innocent Ilozuoke, the police commissioner of Plateau State, said the attack took place in the town of Yelwa on Tuesday night. Many residents fled to a church compound and it was there that most of the victims were killed, he added.

“We have counted a total of 48 people killed during the attack,” Ilozuoke said.

The police commissioner said extra police and soldiers had been sent to Yelwa which has seen a resurgence of hostilities between Christians and Muslims in recent weeks.

Residents of Yelwa said the attack was apparently carried out in retaliation for a Christian raid on a nearby Muslim village last week which left more than 10 people dead.

Police officers have also been targeted by the militants.

The Nigerian police force said four of its officers were killed two days after the christian attack on Wase district when their patrol car was ambushed by suspected to be Muslim gunmen.

Plateau state has suffered intermittent clashes between the two religious communities for several years. In September 2001 more than 1,000 people were killed during a week of sectarian violence in the state capital Jos.

Ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria is not restricted to Plateau State.

Squabbles over benefits associated with the oil industry in the Niger Delta regularly lead to dozens of people being killed in ethnic clashes.

In northern Nigeria, the adoption of strict Islamic or Sharia Law by 12 mainly Muslim states has heightened Christian/Muslim tensions and led to much larger scale confrontations.

Tens of thousands of people have died in ethnic and religious clashes in Nigeria since President Olusegun Obasanjo’s came to power in elections in 1999, ending 15 years of military rule.