Posted on 03/09/2010 5:48:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
International officials called on Nigeria on Tuesday to investigate the deaths of hundreds of unarmed civilians over the weekend in the latest incident of sectarian violence in the region.
Acting president Goodluck Jonathan had promised fighting between Christians and Muslims would stop after more than 300 people were slain in January.
While a curfew was in place in the nearby city of Jos, those who survived the attacks in three villages Sunday said security forces never provided them any guards.
Witnesses say gangs armed with guns and machetes rampaged through three mostly Christian villages, firing shots to draw people from their homes and then running them down and killing them.
Local officials reported as many as 500 people were killed on Sunday, many of them women and children, though the exact number has yet to be confirmed by national authorities.
Jonathan fired his national adviser late Monday night following the violence.
'Clearly, previous efforts to tackle the underlying causes have been inadequate and in the meantime, the wounds have festered and grown deeper.' —UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with an estimated population of close to 150 million, has had a long history of both ethnic and religious violence.
The attack occurred in a middle belt between the predominately Muslim north and the Christian south, where sectarian violence has been recurring. More than 300 residents died during a similar uprising in 2008.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said villagers should have been properly protected following the January uprising.
"Clearly, previous efforts to tackle the underlying causes have been inadequate and in the meantime, the wounds have festered and grown deeper," said Pillay.
Police arrest 90 suspects
The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, issued a statement calling on Nigeria's federal government to seek justice "under the rule of law and in a transparent manner," the embassy said.
Police say they have arrested more than 90 people suspected of inciting the violence. Some police say the killings were in response to the killing of Muslims in January.
Human Rights Watch also condemned the attacks and said more should have been done to protect villagers outside the main city.
"It's time to draw a line in the sand," Human Rights Watch researcher Corinne Dufka said in a statement Tuesday. "The authorities need to protect these communities, bring the perpetrators to book and address the root causes of violence."
“and address the root causes of violence”
Crusade anyone?
And why should Nigeria investigate the deaths of hundreds of people when they’re only Christians.
It’s clear that the phrase “fighting between Christians and Muslims” is the usual reflexive moral equivalence. I’ve heard other reports similarly misleadingly describe these massacres as “clashes”.
Another guns and machetes massacre against the unarmed.
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