Nigeria: More Violence between Christians and Muslims
Hundreds Murdered In Latest Clash Between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria
On Sunday Nigeria bled into the streets in another of a series of brutal attacks that have been occuring in the African country between Northern Muslims and the Southern Christians. On this day over 200 Christians would be savagely slaughtered. Some estimates are as high as 500. Survivors say Christian villagers were trapped in nets and hacked to death by Muslim herdsman. The killers planted nets and animal traps outside the huts of the villagers, mainly peasant farmers, fired weapons in the air, then attacked with machetes, according to human rights lawyer Shehu Sani of the nongovernment Civil Rights Congress, who visited the villages and interviewed dozens of survivors. “People came out of their houses and started falling into the animal traps and mosquito nets and then they were hacked down,” he said. “They were the kind of traps used for wild animals.”
In January over 300 mostly Muslim people were violently killed. Sunday’s attack appears to be a revenge attack as a result of the January massacres. The Northern section of Nigeria is mostly Muslim while the Southern part of Nigeria is predominantly Christian. The violence is occurring in the villages that are in the overlapping range or the center of the country. This religious line is in an area where both Christians and Muslims are hoping to control.
The Rev. Pandang Yamsat, the president of a local Christian group, said he has urged his congregation not to respond violently to Muslims. However, he said he believes Muslims in the area want to control the region and that any peace talks would only give Muslims “time to conquer territory with swords.”
“We have done our best to tell our members, ‘don’t go and attack Muslims, they are your brother,’” Yamsat said. However, “‘if they come to dislodge you in your place, stand to defend yourself.’”
Residents said herders from nearby hills attacked their village at about 3am on Sunday, shooting into the air before using machetes to cut down those who came out of their homes
Thousands have died in these conflicts that have been waged over the last decade. It appears that the violence is not going to stop any time soon in Africa’s most populous country. This year is already becoming one of the most bloody and it is only March.
Nigerian authorities have arrested nearly a hundred people in connection with attacks near the central city of Jos
