The Nigerian government sent in troops to the flashpoint northern Jos region yesterday after attacks by machete-wielding gangs on Christian villages that officials said killed at least 500 people.
Under fire for failing to prevent another outburst of sectarian violence only weeks after hundreds died in Muslim-Christian clashes, authorities said they had arrested scores of people in connection with the attacks.
Newspapers reported that Muslim residents of the villages had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape.
Witnesses, meanwhile, described how the mainly women and children victims in Sunday’s three-hour systematic orgy of violence were caught in animal traps and fishing nets as they tried to flee their attackers, who hacked them to death.
The official death toll was initially put at more than 100, but Dan Manjang, an adviser to the Plateau state government, said it had shot up.
“We have been able to make 95 arrests but at the same time over 500 people have been killed in this heinous act,” Manjang said.
Government-run radio also reported that 500 people had been slaughtered in a raid on three villages on the fringes of Jos, the capital of Plateau state.
Witnesses and rights activists put the figure at between 200 and 250.
Much of the violence was centered around the village of Dogo Nahawa, where gangs from the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group set fire to straw-thatched mud huts before embarking on the killing rampage in the early hours of Sunday.
Frank Tatgun, a resident of Dogo Nahawa, said that he had seen two armored vehicles and three military trucks arrive in the village and scores of troops were now on patrol.
The explosion of violence is the latest between rival ethnic and religious groups. In January, 326 died in clashes in Jos, police said, although rights activists put the overall toll at more than 550.
A curfew that was imposed after January’s unrest is supposed to be still in place, but Christian leaders said the authorities had done nothing to prevent the bloodshed.
“Shortly after the militants besieged Dogo Nahawa … we contacted the soldiers at exactly 1:30am, but we were shocked to find out that the soldiers did not react until about 3:30am after the attackers had finished their job and left,” the Plateau State Christian Elders Consultative Forum said in a statement.
“The attack is yet another jihad and provocation,” it said.
Survivors said the attackers were able to separate the Fulanis from the Beroms by chanting nage, the Fulani word for cattle.
Those who failed to respond in the same language were hacked to death.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘NOT SUBORDINATE’: Only Taiwanese can decide the nation’s future, and people preserving their democratic way of life is not a provocation, President William Lai said Taiwan does not want China’s “one country, two systems,” and must uphold its freedom and democracy as well as resolve to defend itself, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, rejecting Beijing’s latest bid to bring the country under Chinese control. The president made the remarks while attending a commissioning ceremony for Taiwan’s first battalion of M1A2T Abrams tanks in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口). The tanks are made by General Dynamics, a major US defense contractor. China this week said it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media
RSS