Religious, ethnic rivalries fuel discord in Nigeria

Sunday’s bloodshed was mostly about revenge: Christian villages near the city of Jos were attacked before dawn, less than two months after Muslims were targeted and a mosque torched. Hundreds had been killed in January, their corpses stuffed into wells and sewage pits.

Survivors of the weekend attack say one-room houses were set ablaze, the flames illuminating villages that have no electricity. Residents, mostly of the minority Berom ethnic group, ran from their burning homes. Assailants with machetes were waiting. Many of those cut down were children. At least 200 people died.

One 20-year-old man arrested for allegedly taking part in Sunday’s attacks said his family members died at the hands of rioters in January.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is almost evenly split between Sunni Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. The recent bloodshed has been happening in central Nigeria, where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of the nation’s fertile “middle belt.’’

“Jos is a mini-Nigeria. All segments of Nigeria are here,’’ said the State Police commissioner, Ikechukwu Aduba.

After the violence in January, human rights groups said text messages had been sent with the addresses of mosques and churches. Texts also offered instructions on how to dispose of bodies. One read: “Kill them before they kill you.’’

Survivors said the weekend attackers asked people “Who are you?’’ in Fulani, a language used mostly by Muslims, and killed those who did not answer in Fulani.

But Aduba said some attackers had been paid by organizers to commit the killings Sunday, but he declined to give specifics.

National leaders appear to have little control over this region in Africa’s most populous nation. The police and army failed to prevent the massacres. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan promised security forces would bring the city and outlying areas where 1 million people live under control, but many of Jos’s Protestant Christians fear the Muslim-dominated police force and military.

About 40 miles from Jos, in the village of Ku-Got, men armed with machetes, homemade swords, slingshots, and bows and arrows stand guard amid arid cornfields. Barricades made of boulders and cactuses manned by frightened locals block many roads. Nigerian security forces rarely, if ever, patrol these areas. They’re usually beyond cellphone range, and there’s no electricity.