More than 150 people have been killed in a few days around March 14 in central and northern Nigeria in separate attacks on villages populated by a concentration of Christians.
Gunmen raided three villages in Kaduna state in central Nigeria, killing at least 114 people. The attackers opened fire on the villages of Ugwar Sankwai, Ungwan Gata and Chenshyi at about 11pm.
Most of the victims in the three villages were burned beyond recognition. Nigeria’s Channels Television reported that many of the victims have been buried in a mass grave. It is alleged that the attackers were from the Fulani, a West African ethnic group of herdsmen, largely Muslim, who have a history of land grievances with Nigeria’s indigenous Christians and others.
Response to conversions
Fulani also are suspected in attacks on several villages two days later in Taraba state, southeast of Kaduna on Nigeria’s eastern border. About 35 people were killed and a Catholic Church was attacked, according to the Nigeria Daily Post. It cited a man who escaped the attacks as saying the raids were a Fulani response to tensions in the next-door Benue state between the Fulani and the Tivs, a farming ethnic group, some of whom have adopted Christianity.
The same day, militants suspected to be part of Boko Haram, killed two people in Pela Birni village in Borno state, in Nigeria’s northeastern corner. Boko Haram is an armed insurgency that aims to set up Islamic law across Nigeria’s north, and has been blamed for the deaths of thousands of Nigerians, Christian and Muslim, since 2009.
Pela Birni is populated by a concentration of Christians, reported Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper.
‘Here for God’s work
‘The gunmen invaded our village at about 10 o’clock in the evening on Sunday, they started shouting “God is Great,”’ said a resident of the village. ‘In some houses they did not shoot at the residents, but ordered them to vacate their houses and set them ablaze, saying “We are here for God work”’.
Two churches and a number of houses were burned, according to news reports. The Vanguard said the incident was confirmed by Andrew Usman Malgwi, chairman of the Hawul Local Government Area, which encompasses Pela Birni village.
