Hundreds of people in the city of Jos, 350km northeast of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, have been buried in mass graves after machete-wielding intruders attacked residents at 3 a.m. (local time) on 7th March.
Villagers have counted 202 cadavers, according to IRINnews.
There is a heavy military presence in the area, with the deployment of three trucks of soldiers and two armoured cars to prevent escalation of violence.
Witnesses said the attacks were “well-coordinated and indiscriminate, as they were launched simultaneously, and women, children and the handicapped were macheted and then burnt.
HÆVNTOGT
Hundreds of Fulani herdsmen [a primarily nomadic ethnic group] invaded the village Dogo Nahawa and two neighbouring villages, Zot and Ratsat.
The attackers fired gunshots to scare people out of their houses, and then hacked them with machetes before setting them on fire.
A resident, Yusuf Alkali, told IRIN he thought the attacks were reprisal killings for violence in January, when hundreds of Fulani nomadic herders were killed.
– It is obvious that the attacks were reprisals for the raid carried out on Fulani settlements in the area during the January violence by Berom [ethnic group, mostly Christian] youth, in which scores of the nomads, including women and children, were killed and hundreds of cattle taken away, said Alkali.
MANGEL PÅ LANDBRUGSJORD
Dwindling cultivable land have increased the risk of violence, making Plateau State vulnerable to recurring violence, according to the government and rights groups.
The perpetrators of sectarian violence are rarely prosecuted, according to Human Rights Watch.
Local police said more than 300 people arrested after the January killings were still in police custody in Jos and Abuja in late February.
The government is still in the process of demarcating grazing reserves in the northern states of Katsina and Bauchi, in an effort to curb deadly clashes between nomads and farmers over shrinking cultivable pastures caused by poor seeds and soil.
