Sunday, March 7, 2010

Central Nigeria clashes lead to 'scores of deaths'


Injured person being treated at hospital. Picture from Stefanos  Foundation
Many of the victims were cut with machetes, doctors sa

Scores of people have been reported killed in suspected religious clashes near the central Nigerian city of Jos.

Witnesses said corpses were piled up in the village of Dogo-Nahawa, a few kilometres (miles) south of Jos.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has put security forces in central Nigeria on full alert.

In January hundreds of people were killed in riots in Jos, which lies between the mainly Muslim north and the more Christian south.

Ethnic and religious riots also broke out in 2008, killing hundreds.

Military deployed

The attack happened before dawn on Sunday morning when gangs of men descended on the village and attacked people with machetes, reports say.

A resident of Dogo-Nahawa said the attackers had fired guns as they entered the village.

"The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes," Peter Jang told Reuters.

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