More than 300 people, mostly women and children, were killed Sunday, March 7, in a new outburst of deadly sectarian violence near Nigeria's central city of Jos.
"Reports reaching us indicated marauding bands launched a flurry of attacks on certain communities in the state, causing considerable death and injury," Acting President Goodluck Jonathan's office said in a statement cited by Reuters.
Witnesses said machete-wielding gangs attacked the Dogo Nahawa village near Jos, shooting into the air and slashing people fleeing their homes with machetes.
"Over a hundred people have been killed -- most of them women and children," a government official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.
"Some of the children are less than one year old."
But a Reuters witness counted more than 120 bodies -- most lying in Dogo Nahawa.
Some of the bodies, including those of women and children, were charred, others had machete wounds across their faces.
Aid workers said some had been shot.
A Red Cross official said at least two other nearby communities were also targeted in the villages of Ratsat and Zot, all less than 10 kilometers from Jos and home to members of the Berom ethnic group.
The Nigerian government ordered the security forces to hunt down perpetrators of the massacre.
"The Acting President ... has directed that the security services undertake strategic initiatives to confront and defeat these roving bands of killers," Jonathan's office said.
Source: Agencies Kavkaz Center
Publication time: 8 March 2010, 16:47
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