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Muhammad

100s Muslims Massacred in Nigeria

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Hundreds of Muslims Killed by Christian Militia in Nigerian Ethnic Clash

 

Tue May 4, 2004 11:35 AM ET

 

By Tume Ahemba

 

YELWA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslims were killed by Christian militia in the latest outbreak of ethnic fighting in the central Nigerian town of Yelwa, a senior police officer said Tuesday.

 

Mutilated and charred corpses still remained in the main street of the remote market town as thousands of Muslims lined the roadside chanting religious slogans and vowing revenge on the attackers, a Reuters eyewitness said.

 

"The pagans have killed our people," said one man in the Hausa language.

 

"There will be religious war in this country," said another.

 

The police had previously reported 67 corpses recovered from the massacre, which occurred Sunday and Monday.

 

Almost every house lining the main street of Yelwa was burned and some were still smoldering Tuesday. A mosque was also destroyed.

 

Charred beds, mattresses and kitchen utensils were scattered on the ground.

 

A heavily armed convoy carrying a local politician and workers to dig mass graves drove through the town Tuesday but could not stop because of the heightened tension.

 

The conflict is rooted in competing claims between the Christian Taroks and Muslim Fulanis over the fertile farmland of southern Plateau state in the heart of Africa's most populous nation.

 

Before this attack, at least 350 people had been killed in three months of tit-for-tat fighting.

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