Hundreds die as machete gangs attack

Nigeria's government sent in troops to the flash- point northern Jos region after attacks by machete- wielding gangs on Christian villages that officials say killed at least 500 people.

Under fire for failing to prevent another outburst of sectarian violence only weeks after hundreds died in Muslim-Christian clashes, authorities said they had arrested scores of people in connection with the attacks.

Muslim residents of the villages reportedly had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could escape.

Witnesses described how the mainly women and children victims in Sunday's three-hour systematic orgy of violence were caught in animal traps and fishing nets as they tried to flee their attackers, who hacked them to death.


The official death toll was initially put at a little over 100 but Dan Manjang, an adviser to the Plateau state government, said it had shot up.

Government-run radio reported that 500 people had been slaughtered in the three villages.

Much of the violence was centered around the village of Dogo Nahawa, where gangs from the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group set fire to straw- thatched mud huts before embarking on the killing rampage.

Rights activists said the attack appeared to be a revenge for the January attacks in which mainly Muslims were killed.

- Indian Journalist.