ABUJA: Attackers shot dead at least 36 people and destroyed buildings in a night raid on a village near the central Nigerian city of Jos, officials said, in an area hit by repeated ethnic clashes.
The gunmen went house to house killing residents in Yelwa Zangam late on Tuesday, a military spokesman said. Troops struggled to get to the area as a bridge had been destroyed, he added.
Jos is the capital of Plateau State, part of Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt which has seen regular fighting between the Hausa-Fulani group, who dominate the whole of northern Nigeria, and a number of much smaller local ethnic groups.
Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong described the attack as a “barbaric act”, and said security forces had arrested 10 suspects and were pursuing others.
He said he was reinstating a 24-hour curfew on the surrounding area to prevent further loss of life and property. Authorities had only recently relaxed a curfew imposed after attackers killed 22 commuters in the same area on Aug 14. One local resident said the attackers were Fulanis from a nearby area involved in a feud with the Yelwa Zangam community.–Agencies
