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A woman cries during a funeral for victims in a village after attacks by Muslim herders - Source: Reuters -
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Soldiers are patrolling the central Nigerian city of Jos and aid
workers are trying to assess the death toll after attacks on
outlying communities left several hundred people feared dead.
Residents of three predominantly Christian settlements near Jos
said Muslim herders from surrounding hills launched what appeared
to be reprisal attacks following sectarian clashes which killed
hundreds in January.
A Reuters witness counted more than 100 bodies on Monday in Dogo
Nahawa, one of the three communities attacked, but victims were
also brought to hospitals in Jos and some were quickly buried,
making it difficult for officials to assess the toll.
"Soldiers are patrolling and everywhere remains calm ... We are
estimating 500 people killed but I think it should be a little bit
above that," Plateau State Commissioner for Information Gregory
Yenlong said.
Police spokesman Mohammed Lerama said the number of dead officially
recorded so far stood at 55.
Death tolls have been highly politicised in previous outbreaks of
unrest in central Nigeria, with various factions accused of either
exaggerating the figures for political ends or downplaying them to
try to douse the risk of reprisals.
A Red Cross spokesman said the security situation was "still in
disarray" and that while its teams had been able to help evacuate
some people to hospital in Jos, they were still trying to reach all
those areas affected.
The latest unrest in the centre of Africa's most populous nation
comes at a difficult time for Acting President Goodluck Jonathan,
who is trying to assert his authority while ailing President Umaru
Yar'Adua remains too sick to govern.
Plateau state lies at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and
Christian south and fierce competition for control of fertile
farmlands between indigenous groups and settlers from the north
have repeatedly triggered unrest over the past decade.
The instability underscores the fragility of Africa's top energy
producer as it approaches the campaign period for 2011 elections
with uncertainty over who is in charge.
Yar'Adua returned from three months in a Saudi hospital, where he
was being treated for a heart condition, almost two weeks ago but
has still not been seen in public. Presidency sources say he
remains in a mobile intensive care unit.
Jonathan put the security forces on red alert late on Sunday to try
to prevent reprisal attacks spreading into neighbouring states. He
ordered the security forces to "confront and defeat these roving
bands of killers".
Soldiers have been on the streets of Jos policing a dusk-to-dawn
curfew since four days of clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs
in January, when community leaders put the death toll at more than
400.
France condemned the violence and backed Nigerian
authorities.
"France firmly condemns the serious violence," French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement.
"I express France's support to the Nigerian authorities in their
efforts to restore calm and bring the perpetrators of the violence
to justice."
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