Central Nigeria overnight attacks kill 15

Fresh overnight attacks killed at least 15 people in Nigeria, the latest in a wave of recent killings in an area beset by sectarian violence, a local government official said on Saturday.

“Fifteen people were killed ... in Vwang district of Jos south local government area of Plateau state in a midnight attack,” a government spokesperson Pam Ayuba said.

The attack in a central district on the outskirts of the city of Jos, targeted predominantly Christian ethnic farming villagers known as Beroms.

More villagers were missing in what appeared to be a wave of spiralling attacks suspected to be staged by Fulani herdsmen from adjoining villages.

Some of the attacks in recent days have nearly wiped out entire families.

“This is the third time such attacks are taking place [in recent days] suggesting a premeditated murder,” he said.

Dozens of suspects have been arrested in connection with some of the recent attacks.

Ayuba said “54 persons have been arrested so far ... the last few days”.

Boko Haram
Jos has been hit by waves of violence between Christian and Muslim groups that have left hundreds dead in recent years.

The area lies between the predominantly Christian south and mainly Muslim north of Africa’s most populous nation.

The Geneva-based office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday expressed concern at the resurgence of violence in central Nigeria.

The renewed violence is the latest of woes for the government of President Goodluck Jonathan which is already under pressure to put an end to Islamist bomb attacks mainly in the north of the country and the capital Abuja.

A Nigerian Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for an August 26 suicide attack that killed at least 23 people at the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with 158-million people, divided roughly in half between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.—AFP