Post by ha on May 7, 2004 9:21:38 GMT -5
Red Cross official: 500 killed in attacks on Nigerian Muslim village
By SUNDAY ALAMBA
Associated Press Writer
YELWA, Nigeria (AP) _ Militants from a predominantly Christian tribe killed at least 500 people in attacks on a mainly Muslim village in central Nigeria, a senior Red Cross official said. Nascent efforts to mediate the crisis hit a snag on Friday.
Although the exact death toll was not known, Red Cross workers «estimate 500 to 600 dead» after interviewing witnesses and inspecting a mass grave site where hundreds were apparently buried, Red Cross official Umar Abdu Mairiga said Thursday.
He was leading a Nigerian Red Cross team visiting the Hausa-speaking Muslim town of Yelwa on Thursday following raids on Sunday and Tuesday by fighters from the largely Christian Tarok ethnic group.
One hundred people were reported missing following the attacks, many of them women and children allegedly abducted by the attackers, Mairiga added.
«We have done what we could do» to treat 58 injured residents still in the town, he said. At least 100 other wounded civilians were evacuated along with thousands of others whose homes were destroyed, other Red Cross officials said.
On Thursday, the region surrounding the town of about 10,000 appeared quiet as authorities declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
An emergency mediation committee meant to bring together leaders of the rival groups launched Thursday by President Olusegun Obasanjo took a hit on Friday.
Obasanjo named a prominent Muslim leader to head the committee, drawing condemnation from Christians, who constitute the majority in Plateau state.
«In the event of crisis, to bring somebody who has sympathy for the other group or somebody who is not neutral in the matter to head the panel is not acceptable,» said Samuel Salifu, leader of the region's Christian association.
Interwined religious, ethnic and political enmities have fueled outbreaks of communal bloodshed that have left over 10,000 dead since Obasanjo's 1999 election ended 15 years of repressive military rule in Africa's most-populous nations.
The latest killings are part of a cycle of back-and-forth attacks that have rocked central Nigeria since 1,000 died during in September 2001 during fighting between Christians against Muslims in the city of Jos.
Many more have since been killed in the restive region, including hundreds since January this year.
Nigerian police _ who traditionally downplay casualty tolls in order to try to prevent retaliatory attacks _ had initially reported 80 killed at Yelwa, a figure repeated by the Nigerian Red Cross president Emmanuel Ijewere.
Few parts of Yelwa, a town of cattle herdsman and semi-nomadic traders, were left untouched in the latest raids by assailants who used jerry cans of kerosene to burn several mosques and hundreds, possibly thousands, of homes and vehicles.
On Wednesday, residents led an Associated Press reporter behind a mosque to a 14 1/2-square-meter (160-square-foot) area of freshly upturned soil smelling of rotting flesh. It was the burial site for 280 dead, the residents said.
In a makeshift clinic in front of the home of a local chief, Red Cross officials gave pain-relief injections Thursday to men, women and children in agony from machete or gunshot wounds.
Police escorted truckloads of other residents fleeing the town along a road through neighboring Shendam, a Christian Tarok community, saying they feared more fighting if they didn't accompany the groups.
Ambrose Nanlong, a 68-year-old community leader in the nearby town of Shendam _ dominated by Tarok-speaking Christians _ said some local «Christian boys» helped attack Yelwa to avenge a raid by Muslim militants on another village. His account couldn't be verified.
Nanlong said the Christians took up arms in «self-defense.»
«Yelwa has been a thorn in the flesh of Shendam for a very long time,» Nanlong said.
__
Associated Press writers Dulue Mbachu and Glenn McKenzie in Lagos contributed to this report.
AP 7/05/2004 13:20:00
By SUNDAY ALAMBA
Associated Press Writer
YELWA, Nigeria (AP) _ Militants from a predominantly Christian tribe killed at least 500 people in attacks on a mainly Muslim village in central Nigeria, a senior Red Cross official said. Nascent efforts to mediate the crisis hit a snag on Friday.
Although the exact death toll was not known, Red Cross workers «estimate 500 to 600 dead» after interviewing witnesses and inspecting a mass grave site where hundreds were apparently buried, Red Cross official Umar Abdu Mairiga said Thursday.
He was leading a Nigerian Red Cross team visiting the Hausa-speaking Muslim town of Yelwa on Thursday following raids on Sunday and Tuesday by fighters from the largely Christian Tarok ethnic group.
One hundred people were reported missing following the attacks, many of them women and children allegedly abducted by the attackers, Mairiga added.
«We have done what we could do» to treat 58 injured residents still in the town, he said. At least 100 other wounded civilians were evacuated along with thousands of others whose homes were destroyed, other Red Cross officials said.
On Thursday, the region surrounding the town of about 10,000 appeared quiet as authorities declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
An emergency mediation committee meant to bring together leaders of the rival groups launched Thursday by President Olusegun Obasanjo took a hit on Friday.
Obasanjo named a prominent Muslim leader to head the committee, drawing condemnation from Christians, who constitute the majority in Plateau state.
«In the event of crisis, to bring somebody who has sympathy for the other group or somebody who is not neutral in the matter to head the panel is not acceptable,» said Samuel Salifu, leader of the region's Christian association.
Interwined religious, ethnic and political enmities have fueled outbreaks of communal bloodshed that have left over 10,000 dead since Obasanjo's 1999 election ended 15 years of repressive military rule in Africa's most-populous nations.
The latest killings are part of a cycle of back-and-forth attacks that have rocked central Nigeria since 1,000 died during in September 2001 during fighting between Christians against Muslims in the city of Jos.
Many more have since been killed in the restive region, including hundreds since January this year.
Nigerian police _ who traditionally downplay casualty tolls in order to try to prevent retaliatory attacks _ had initially reported 80 killed at Yelwa, a figure repeated by the Nigerian Red Cross president Emmanuel Ijewere.
Few parts of Yelwa, a town of cattle herdsman and semi-nomadic traders, were left untouched in the latest raids by assailants who used jerry cans of kerosene to burn several mosques and hundreds, possibly thousands, of homes and vehicles.
On Wednesday, residents led an Associated Press reporter behind a mosque to a 14 1/2-square-meter (160-square-foot) area of freshly upturned soil smelling of rotting flesh. It was the burial site for 280 dead, the residents said.
In a makeshift clinic in front of the home of a local chief, Red Cross officials gave pain-relief injections Thursday to men, women and children in agony from machete or gunshot wounds.
Police escorted truckloads of other residents fleeing the town along a road through neighboring Shendam, a Christian Tarok community, saying they feared more fighting if they didn't accompany the groups.
Ambrose Nanlong, a 68-year-old community leader in the nearby town of Shendam _ dominated by Tarok-speaking Christians _ said some local «Christian boys» helped attack Yelwa to avenge a raid by Muslim militants on another village. His account couldn't be verified.
Nanlong said the Christians took up arms in «self-defense.»
«Yelwa has been a thorn in the flesh of Shendam for a very long time,» Nanlong said.
__
Associated Press writers Dulue Mbachu and Glenn McKenzie in Lagos contributed to this report.
AP 7/05/2004 13:20:00