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Hundreds slaughtered in religious fighting
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 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. Posted by: ed 2004-05-07 |
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