Lagos | Wednesday
More than 100 people have been shot dead by rampaging soldiers in central Nigeria in the latest bout of unrest in this crisis-torn African country.
The reprisal attacks late on Monday and Tuesday came after 19 soldiers were killed by ethnic militiamen two weeks ago near the border of the south central states of Benue and Taraba. The soldiers’ corpses were found mutilated.
The soldiers were buried on Monday in the country’s capital Abuja with an order by President Olusegun Obasanjo that their killers should be found and brought to book.
A lorry-load of soldiers on Monday began two days of retaliatory attacks on Anyiin, Gbeji, Iorja and Vaase – border towns of Benue and Taraba States and shot dead more than 100 residents, said a government representative.
“Over 100 people have been killed since Monday evening,” the official in the Benue State press office said.
He said the soldiers stormed the four villages in reprisal attacks over the killing of the soldiers sent on a peacekeeping mission at the border between two warring communities.
Obasanjo has not yet reacted to the massacres carried out by the military.
The government spokesman said the house of a former army chief, retired general Victor Malu in Benue was also razed by the soldiers and that some members of his family were seriously injured.
Benue police representative Emmanuel Deebom confirmed the shooting, but declined say if people were killed. He said his men were investigating the incident.
“We have sent our men to the area to investigate the shooting. I cannot therefore confirm any casualty at the moment,” he said.
Over the years, Nigeria has faced waves of religious and ethnic unrest which have claimed thousands of lives.
With a population of more than 121,8-million, the crowded country is one of the most ethnically diverse on earth with more than 250 indigenous ethnic groups, and also splits north and south along religious lines.
In the last two years, a dozen northern states have introduced strict Islamic law to the chagrin of the Nigerian government and Christians, who have continued to oppose the adoption.
More than 100 people were killed last week in the northern city of Kano in Muslim riots against US attacks on Afghanistan, while more than 500 died in Jos in September.
In June, scores were killed and tens of thousands were uprooted in Taraba and its neighbouring state of Nasarawa in ethnic clashes.
Worried by the spate of deadly violence in the country, Obasanjo last week set up a panel on national security.
The president told the 14-member panel “to find a lasting solution to the incessant cases of breach of peace and security in the country”.
The panel is expected to study the causes of unrest and make appropriate recommendations to the government.
Apart from religious and ethnic clashes, agitation for a larger share in the nation’s oil wealth has also claimed hundreds of lives in oil-rich southern Niger-Delta region of the country. – AFP