Sectarian violence afresh in Jos

Reports coming in from:

Bloomberg:

Two people were killed in a bomb blast outside the ECWA Church, Nasarawa Gwom in Jos, a city in Nigeria’s Plateau state, a region beset in recent months by sectarian violence, a government official said.


“We suspect the two men were trying to plant a bomb outside the church while Sunday service was on when the bomb exploded, killing both of them,” Gregory Yenlong, the Plateau State commissioner for information in a telephone interview. “A major tragedy was aborted today, because there was a very large congregation.”

More than 200 people have died in reprisal attacks by Christian and Muslim groups in the Plateau region, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, since multiple bomb blasts in Jos city on Christmas Eve killed 80 people. A radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram, or “Western education is a sin,” claimed responsibility for the explosions.

Vanguard:

The blast which occurred near the church threw worshipers into panic and forced the church to cancel other services for the day. Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Istifanus Mwansat was among the worshippers.

Irate youth in the area were said to have immediately set the corpses on fire and the ensuing pandemonium degenerated into another religious hostilities with attacks on Christians and Muslims by mobs in parts of the city.

Our correspondent sighted a corpse and a motorcycle burning around Angwa Rukuba junction along the Bauchi Ring Road while wind shields of many vehicles parked inside the church were smashed by stones thrown into the compound by miscreants.

Voice of America:

Jos has experienced years of sectarian violence stemming from disputes over land, jobs, and power. Thousands have been killed in recurring battles between gangs of Muslims and Christians.

The latest wave of attacks began with bombings on Christmas Eve (December 24) that killed several dozen people.

Jos sits in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, where the mainly Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south.

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