Sub-Saharan Informer - Entertainment


		The Pan-African Newspaper

Entertainment

Nigeria Sectarian violence claims 55 lives
By agencies
ABUJA, Nigeria - The police command in Nigeria's northern Plateau state has put the death toll from Sunday's renewed sectarian violence near the capital city of Jos at 55, far lower than the reported casualty figures.
Journalists who were taken on a tour of Dogo Nahawa, Zon and Ratsat reported Monday that at least 150 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the dawn attack.
The state government spokesman, Gregory Yenlong, also said as many as 500 people died in the attack, a figure corroborated by Christian leaders in the state.
But police spokesman Mohammed Lerama said only 55 people died, while 19 Fulanis were arrested. He also said some arms and ammunition, including nine single barrel guns, four double guns and two loca lly-made double barrel pistols, were also recovered.
In what were believed to be reprisal attacks, following January's sectarian violence that left 326 dead in Jos, Muslim Fulani pastoralists reportedly launched a dawn attack against the Christian villagers, burning their homes while hacking and shooting those who tried to escape.

The journalists who went to the area reported that dead bodies of mostly women and children littered a four-kilometre area.

The authorities have a history of downplaying casualty figures, believing that high casualty figures could inflame passion and worse the crisis.

Age-long disagreement over fertile farmlands between the migrant Fulani herdsmen and the largely Christian villagers, who are farmers, has been blamed for the recurring violence in the once-peaceful state.