Release International

Plateau State officials have faced angry protests and hard questions after perhaps 500 Christians were murdered in villages around Jos, despite a heavy security presence in the area.

In a brutal two-hour assault early on March 7, armed men attacked Christians with machetes, killing entire families, and set scores of homes alight. The casualties were mainly women, children and the elderly – all those less able to escape. Release partner Mark Lipdo of the Stefanos Foundation reports that Zot village was 'almost wiped out'.

At the time of writing, state police said 109 people were known to have died – but religious leaders and other officials reported that more than 500 people had died.

The attackers are now believed to have been ethnic Fulani Muslims who targeted ethnic Berom Christians in the villages of Zot, Dogo Nahauwa and Rastat in Jos South. The raid has been widely reported as retaliation for violent communal clashes in January in which both Muslims and Christians died (Prayer Alert, February 2, 2010). Berom and Fulani ethnic groups have long competed for pasture, jobs and political power. But there is believed to be a strong religious dimension to this conflict too. Fulani Muslims are reported to have chanted Allahu Akbar ('Allah is the greatest') as they attacked.

Jos is supposed to have been under military curfew since January. Christian leaders and Plateau State governor Jonah Jang have questioned the response of the military to this latest outbreak of violence. Christian leaders claim that it took the army two hours to react to their distress call – by which time the attackers had left.

Police say they have made 200 arrests and more than 49 suspects are to be charged with murder, according to the BBC. But many people in Jos have fled or are preparing to leave, fearing more violence. Crowds of youths reportedly gathered to protest against this latest violence but were moved on. The BBC says an 'uneasy peace' has been restored.

(Sources: Agence France Presse, BBC, Compass Direct, International Christian Concern)

• Pray for all those who have lost loved ones in this brutal attack. Ask God to comfort and strengthen them and help them to forgive, rather than become embittered.
• Pray that the Nigerian Government will do more to end the cycle of violence in which Jos appears trapped – with communal clashes in 2001, 2008 and this year.

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