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“... The zot village was completely wiped out, almost all the people there except those who were able to escape by running to another place. But almost everybody that was found there was killed.”
In Nigeria, Christian villagers mostly women and children, were slaughtered by machete-wielding Muslim herdsmen. The death toll varies from 200 to 500 deaths. Now the media want to know why the attacks occurred, and what the government is going to do.
We’re looking at perspectives from the BBC, NPR, CNN, France 24 and Al Jazeera English.
The motivation behind the attacks is still unclear. But NPR says retaliation could be the answer.
“…in January a Christian strike on a Muslim village killed hundreds of people. The shadow land between Nigeria’s Muslim North and Christian South has been beset by religious and ethnic tensions.”
Tensions over land ownership also plague the area. CNN brings a perspective from an archbishop in the region who says it’s all about natural resources.
"'The point that needs to be made is that people are not killing one another because of religion,' … Instead, he called it a "classical" economic conflict between farmers and less sedentary groups.”
France 24 shifts the focus from motivations to what the government is doing to control its people.
“Security services are now on red alert in and around Jos. There’s been a curfew in the region since January when at least 200 people were killed in clashes between Christians and Muslims. There was also violence in 2008 following a contested election, the death toll then, also in the hundreds.”
The attacks come at a time of weakness in Nigeria. Vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, is currently acting as head of state while the president recovers from a severe illness. Al Jazeera English describes the efforts of the interim government.
“Thousands of police officers and the army have been deployed to Plateau state to clamp down on any attempts by groups to launch attacks. There are fears that people from other states could be planning reprisal attacks."
