NIGERIA, MAR 18 -

Muslim herdsmen disguised as soldiers Wednesday butchered and then torched around a dozen Christians in Nigeria, near the site of a recent sectarian massacre, officials and witnesses said.

Most of the victims of the raid on Byei and Batem villages in the Riyom region of the central Plateau state were women and children, state radio reported, as locals accused security forces of failing to act quickly to prevent the slaughter.

A reporter at the scene of the carnage in Byei said he had counted 12 bodies which bore deep machete cuts and had been partially burned.

"I can confirm that 13 people have died while six others have been critically injured," State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong told AFP.

A senior government official who visited the village told AFP that two teenagers, a young boy and three women in their 60s were among the victims.

"What I saw in the village was very sad. I saw corpses of some women, some of them very old, one of a child less than five years and that of a woman who was burnt with a baby on her back," he said.

Half a dozen homes had also been torched by the killers, said the reporter. Surviving residents could be seen crying and wailing in grief.

"We still have some relations still unaccounted for," a resident, who refused to be named, told AFP.

Seven suspects were arrested after the carnage outside Jos, the capital of Plateau State, a senior army officer said in a statement.

"We have succeeded in arresting seven of the assailants while our men are on the trail of others," General Donald Orji said in the statement.

"Items recovered from the suspects include three locally-made short guns with cartridges, bows, arrows, machetes, knives and cutlasses. They have been handed over to the police for further investigations," he said.

Police spokesman Lerama Mohammed said the pre-dawn attack was believed to have been carried out by members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group which was behind last week's massacre in three Berom villages near Jos.

Police said 109 people were killed in that attack although other officials put the figure at over 500.

Simon Mwadkon, chairman of the local municipality, told AFP: "so far, we have lost 12 people in the attack and 12 houses have been burnt while two other persons are still missing."

"The attack was launched around 0100 am but alerted security agents arrived one and a half hours later after the attack," he said.

The attackers were said to have been dressed in army camouflage when they stormed the village as residents were asleep, said the radio.

State police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba said 50 police and military personnel had been deployed to beef up security in the area.

But Emmanuel Jugu, a local lawmaker, called for the withdrawal of soldiers from the area in frustration at their failure to provide protection.

"It is better the military should go to their barracks ... We can protect and defend ourselves," he said.

Some residents said the killings were part of a spiralling feud between the Fulani, who are nomads, and Berom, who are farmers, which had been sparked by the theft of cattle, rather than for religious motives.

Previous violence in and around Jos has claimed thousands of lives in the past decade.

The city lies on the dividing line between the Christian majority south and the mostly Muslim north.

Analysts and critics have accused authorities of fostering a culture of impunity by failing to punish those arrested over previous attacks in Jos.

In a brodacast on state television late Wednesday, Plateau Governor Jonah Jang appealed for calm and vowed to find the murderers.

"I call for calm and restraint in this period of crisis. I sympathise with the residents of Byei and Baten villages that were attacked," he said.

"I assure the people of Plateau State that the state government will do everything possible to unmask the perpetrators of the mayhem in these villages," said Jang, a former senior air force officer.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is divided almost in the middle between the two faiths.

Posted on: 2010-03-18 12:00

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