JOS: The death toll after four days of clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Nigerian city of Jos and nearby communities has topped 460, according to a mosque official and human rights activists.
Six military units and hundreds of police were stationed throughout Plateau state’s capital city in central Nigeria to enforce a 24-hour curfew on Wednesday.
While the violence had subsided, streets were deserted and many businesses remained closed in Jos, which has been the scene of similar bloody sectarian clashes in recent years.
The relative calm has allowed mosque officials to retrieve more bodies from neighborhoods just outside Jos. “We found more than 200 bodies gathered at the mosque in Kuru Gada Biu and 22 more at Mai Adiko,” said Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organizing mass burials, who had earlier estimated the death toll among Muslims at 177.
Official police figures were significantly lower with 35 people dead, 40 injured and 168 arrested since Sunday.
“More troops have come in and the situation is now under control. But there are still many hoodlums dressed in fake police and military outfits causing havoc,” said Gregory Yenlong, spokesman for the Plateau state government.
There are conflicting accounts about what unleashed the bloodshed. According to the state police commissioner, skirmishes began after Muslim youths set a Christian church ablaze, but Muslim leaders denied that. Other community leaders say it began with an argument over the rebuilding of a Muslim home in a predominantly Christian neighborhood that had been destroyed in November 2008.
Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said what caused the latest spark was beside the point.
The deeper problem, she said, is the government’s failure to address underlying conflict in the region.
After similar bouts of violence in the past, Nigerian authorities have “come up with analysis, but they don’t respond properly with concrete measures and policies,” Dufka said.
In Jos, witnesses said rioters armed with knives, homemade firearms and stones had attacked passers-by and fought with security forces, leaving bodies in the street and stacked in mosques after fighting began Sunday.
Authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew, but on Wednesday people could been seen walking around the center of the city.
The chief of Army staff, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau, confirmed accounts that some Muslims had been dragged out of their homes and shot by men dressed in what appeared to be army uniforms.
He said five of the suspects arrested were dressed in khaki army-style uniforms and claimed to be police officers, though only one of the five men could provide police identification.
