http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/05/06/religion.nigeria.reut/
Thursday, May 6, 2004 Posted: 12:39 PM EDT (1639 GMT)
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- A Nigerian Christian leader said on Thursday the killing of hundreds of Muslims by Christian militia in the town of Yelwa on Sunday was the product of "a state of war" between the two faiths in Africa's most populous nation.
The conflict between the Christian Tarok and the Muslim Fulani is patently about their competing claims over the fertile farmlands of Plateau state in central Nigeria, but religious leaders and academics said it fed an already strong trend of religious hatred in the impoverished oil exporting country.
"What we have is a state of war," said Sam Kujiyat, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern city of Kaduna.
The West African country is a battleground for the world's two main religions, which share roughly equally its population of 130 million people.
Religious violence has killed at least 5,000 people since 2000, when 12 northern states predominantly inhabited by Muslims established Islamic Sharia law.
On Sunday, hundreds of Christian Tarok militia invaded the town of Yelwa, sealed off roads to town with felled trees, and killed hundreds of Fulani with machine guns and machetes.
A Muslim community leader said 630 bodies had been buried in the town. Abdullahi D. Abdullahi showed a Reuters correspondent a foul-smelling area of freshly turned earth where he said the bodies had been buried.
The attack followed the killing of almost 100 Christians in Yelwa in February, including 48 massacred in a church, and brought the total death toll in three months of fighting in the region to at least 1,000.
"In Yelwa many Christians were slaughtered and the churches there were burned down by Muslims. Do we defend ourselves or allow our homes to be taken and people killed?" said Kujiyat.
Fomenting strife
Abubakar Siddique Muhammed, head of political science at Nigeria's Ahmadu Bello University, said the Plateau conflict played dangerously into the hands of those fomenting religious strife.
"Various leaders have made statements to the effect that Muslims have no place in the area (around Yelwa). If you say a particular tribe does not belong there, you are preparing for genocide or massacre," Muhammed told Reuters.
"The state must take action because if it doesn't, it could throw the whole country into chaos," he added.
Muslims dominate the north of Nigeria and Christians the south, although significant minorities exist in both regions.
In ethnically diverse Plateau state, in the centre of the country, the two religions had been cohabiting peacefully for generations until ethnic and religious fighting tore apart the state capital Jos in 2001.
Divisions have only deepened since then. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and now villages that were once home to mixed populations are becoming enclaves of one ethnic group or the other.
Justice Abdulkadir Orire, a top Muslim leader, said he suspected powerful retired military figures were behind the escalating violence and could be trying to create a separate, Christian power base for themselves in the ethnically diverse region known as the Middle Belt.
"Some people have been trying to separate the North from the Middle Belt and create a separate zone for themselves. That would create chaos across all of Nigeria," said Orire, who is Secretary-General of Jama'atu Nasril Islam.
He has called for a judicial enquiry into the killings to expose the sponsors of the attack.
Thursday, May 6, 2004 Posted: 12:39 PM EDT (1639 GMT)
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- A Nigerian Christian leader said on Thursday the killing of hundreds of Muslims by Christian militia in the town of Yelwa on Sunday was the product of "a state of war" between the two faiths in Africa's most populous nation.
The conflict between the Christian Tarok and the Muslim Fulani is patently about their competing claims over the fertile farmlands of Plateau state in central Nigeria, but religious leaders and academics said it fed an already strong trend of religious hatred in the impoverished oil exporting country.
"What we have is a state of war," said Sam Kujiyat, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern city of Kaduna.
The West African country is a battleground for the world's two main religions, which share roughly equally its population of 130 million people.
Religious violence has killed at least 5,000 people since 2000, when 12 northern states predominantly inhabited by Muslims established Islamic Sharia law.
On Sunday, hundreds of Christian Tarok militia invaded the town of Yelwa, sealed off roads to town with felled trees, and killed hundreds of Fulani with machine guns and machetes.
A Muslim community leader said 630 bodies had been buried in the town. Abdullahi D. Abdullahi showed a Reuters correspondent a foul-smelling area of freshly turned earth where he said the bodies had been buried.
The attack followed the killing of almost 100 Christians in Yelwa in February, including 48 massacred in a church, and brought the total death toll in three months of fighting in the region to at least 1,000.
"In Yelwa many Christians were slaughtered and the churches there were burned down by Muslims. Do we defend ourselves or allow our homes to be taken and people killed?" said Kujiyat.
Fomenting strife
Abubakar Siddique Muhammed, head of political science at Nigeria's Ahmadu Bello University, said the Plateau conflict played dangerously into the hands of those fomenting religious strife.
"Various leaders have made statements to the effect that Muslims have no place in the area (around Yelwa). If you say a particular tribe does not belong there, you are preparing for genocide or massacre," Muhammed told Reuters.
"The state must take action because if it doesn't, it could throw the whole country into chaos," he added.
Muslims dominate the north of Nigeria and Christians the south, although significant minorities exist in both regions.
In ethnically diverse Plateau state, in the centre of the country, the two religions had been cohabiting peacefully for generations until ethnic and religious fighting tore apart the state capital Jos in 2001.
Divisions have only deepened since then. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and now villages that were once home to mixed populations are becoming enclaves of one ethnic group or the other.
Justice Abdulkadir Orire, a top Muslim leader, said he suspected powerful retired military figures were behind the escalating violence and could be trying to create a separate, Christian power base for themselves in the ethnically diverse region known as the Middle Belt.
"Some people have been trying to separate the North from the Middle Belt and create a separate zone for themselves. That would create chaos across all of Nigeria," said Orire, who is Secretary-General of Jama'atu Nasril Islam.
He has called for a judicial enquiry into the killings to expose the sponsors of the attack.
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