Friday, May 7, 2004
Thousands of Muslims flee Nigeria town after attack
Reuters Lafia, May 7
Thousands of Nigerian Muslims braved hostile Christian roadblocks on Friday to flee the town of Yelwa after an attack by Christian militia killed hundreds earlier in the week.
Many wounded and exhausted, the refugees sought police escorts to take them to neighbouring Bauchi and Nassarawa states as Christians manning road blocks in surrounding villages tried to kill them as they left.
"On our way to the hospital they blocked the road and we had to turn back and get armed escorts," said Ozero Yunusa, a blacksmith shot in the leg in Sunday's attack.
"Even then they still attacked our vehicles and one of my brothers was shot in the process," he said from his hospital bed in Nassarawa state capital Lafia.
Lafia hospital was overrun with scores of victims from Sunday's attack, with some badly wounded people sitting on floors due to lack of bed space. The Red Cross said 955 displaced families were camped at a primary school in the town.
The conflict between the Christian Tarok tribe and the Muslim Fulani is rooted in their competing claims over the fertile farmlands of Plateau state in central Nigeria.
It has been stoked by a growing trend of religious hatred in Africa's most populous country, and the sense among the Christians that Muslims are outsiders in Plateau.
TOLL DISPUTED
Survivors of the Yelwa massacre said they had buried 630 corpses in several mass graves around the remote market town after Sunday's attack. It was not possible to confirm the figure independently, but a senior policeman spoke of "hundreds" dead.
Presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said 630 dead was an exaggeration, adding 67 corpses had been recovered by police.
Access to the town was still extremely limited on Friday due to continued skirmishing nearby.
The Yelwa attack was the latest in a three-month-long conflict between Muslim and Christian groups vying for control of Plateau state.
Before Sunday, the fighting had already killed at least 350 people on both sides, according to witnesses, military and Red Cross sources. The government routinely does not confirm death tolls in religious fighting for fear of reprisal attacks.
Wounded victims spoke of a military-style, two-day assault on the town by hundreds of Christian militia, armed with assault rifles and machetes.
"Some were shooting, others were burning houses, while others were looting. They had satellite phones through which they were communicating," said Abdullahi Bala, a truck driver who was shot in the back.
A Reuters eyewitness saw corpses in Yelwa on Tuesday showing signs of mutilation and sexual abuse.
"It was an organised killing," said Justice Abdulkadir Orire, secretary-general of Jama'atu Nasril Islam and leader of Nigeria's 60 million Muslims.
Yelwa had already witnessed one of the worst atrocities of the Plateau conflict in February, when Muslim militia killed almost 100 Christians, including 48 massacred in a church.
Nigeria is a battleground for the world's top two religions, with its population of 130 million roughly split between Muslims and Christians. Religious violence has killed at least 5,000 Nigerians since 2000, when 12 northern Nigerian states established Islamic Sharia law.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2004.