5,000 displaced,26 dead so far in Jos violence again.

* Death toll rises to 26, security forces patrol violence-hit areas

JOS/KANO: About 5,000 people were displaced in Nigeria as clashes between Christians and Muslims erupted in Jos, a city that saw more than 700 residents killed during a similar uprising in 2008.

Angry Muslim youths set a church filled with worshippers ablaze in northern Nigeria, starting a riot that killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 300 others in the latest religious violence in the region, officials said Monday.

About 5,000 people lost their homes as rioters also burned mosques and homes in Jos, a city that saw more than 300 residents killed during a similar uprising in 2008, said local Red Cross official Auwal Muhammad Madobi. He said he had no information about deaths. Police officials declined to offer a count of the dead.
Jos sits in the heart of northern Nigeria, home to the nation's Muslim population. Religious violence, largely based on local disputes rather than global conflicts, has struck Jos in the past. Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people and Muslim-Christian battles killed up to 700 people in 2004.

Sani Mudi, a spokesman for the local imam, said 22 people died Sunday after rioters set fire to a Catholic church, starting a daylong wave of violence between Christians and Muslims. Five others died Monday from their wounds, and police and soldiers set up numerous road blocks throughout Jos.

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of 10 dead youths, marked with bullet holes and machete wounds, at a local hospital on Monday. On Sunday, witnesses told reporters they saw 10 bodies at a mosque in the city. It was unclear if the bodies in the hospital were the same ones seen in the mosque.

The rioting began Sunday, when the youths attacked a church, said Gregory Yenlong, a state government spokesman. Yenlong said he didn't know why the young men set the blaze.

"That's what's being investigated," he said.

Police arrested 35 people who they suspect took part in the rioting, Yenlong said. He said at least five of the men arrested were wearing fake Nigerian military uniforms. He also said a dusk-to-dawn curfew would remain in place on Jos for the coming days.

Musa Pam, secretary of a local Christian elders forum, issued a statement Monday claiming the Muslim youths picked Sunday to launch their attack because they knew Christians would be worshipping at church. He asked the police to bring the killers to justice, because Christians were being attacked without cause.

Kabiru Mohammed, a Muslim resident who lost his home in the 2008 violence, told reporters Monday that after he recently started to rebuild his house, local Christian youths surrounded it and demanded that he stop construction.

"They said the area now belongs to them," Mohammed said.

The youths attacked, killing two labourers working on the home, Mohammed said.

Ahmed Garba, a Muslim lawyer, said he escaped being lynched by a group of Christian youths armed with bows and arrows, knives, stones and locally made firearms. He watched as they attacked and stabbed three people.

Traffic in the northern Nigerian city remained light on Monday, as the few cars travelling met multiple roadblocks and close searches by police and soldiers. Local police spokesman Mohammed Lerama said the site of the rioting remained sealed off, but that calm had returned to Jos.

"There's an absolute peace," Lerama said.

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I barely escaped death from this nonsense,Guess I will never come around here again after school.

Originally Posted by amarachuks

I barely escaped death from this nonsense,Guess I will never come around here again after school.

Thanks to God for your life, for I was in the same boat as you. I never thought I had it in me to run for 2 kilometers. I lost my car, but I am grateful to God for my life. I hope to God to see the end of this madness in my life time.

Hard luck to you both,Mine was the trek of my Life some years ago in Sokoto.in the Shadow death.

From Daily trust.

The crisis that engulfed the Plateau State capital of Jos on Sunday started at Dutse Uku on the city outskirts when Christian youth tried to stop a Muslim man from renovating his house that was destroyed in the November 2008 riot, according to Alhaji Kabir Muhammad, the man at the center of the storm.


Speaking to our reporter in Jos yesterday, Alhaji Kabiru said, "During the 2008 crisis [in Jos], my house was burnt and I had to relocate elsewhere while I started renovating it gradually. By weekend, I had reached the level where I was going to put on the decking. The residents in my area had earlier volunteered to help me when I come to put on the decking. Therefore yesterday (Sunday, January 17th) people came to the site to help in putting on the decking. We did a significant level of the work when the sand finished, so I rushed to Yan' Tifa [area] and ordered two trucks of sand."


He continued, "When the driver went for the second round to supply the sand, I saw from afar that some people were stoning the people in the tipper truck, while the people in the truck too were stoning them. I went down there to see what was happening, and they told me that they were insulting them. Many people gathered there and consoled the tipper men and everybody dispersed. Then the person that was stoning the people in the truck went and told his people that he was beaten by some Hausa youths and before you know it, a mob gathered at the site where I was renovating my house and demanded that we should stop the work. I then realized that the situation might become uncontrollable, so I rushed with my car to call soldiers who were posted at Yan Trailer [garage].


"Even before I got there, someone had informed them because they were already in their van heading towards the area. So I turned back and followed them. When we arrived at my house with the soldiers, the people popularly known as Yan Kasa [i.e. natives] demanded that the renovation work should be stopped. One particular Bajari man was the one that insisted that I must halt the work. I explained to the soldiers that I had already started this work when they proposed that the work should be stopped so that the matter can be resolved. One of the soldiers even collected my number and said that about five of us will go and sit down to resolve the matter. Then all of a sudden, we saw one Achaba boy [commercial motorcyclist] heading towards us with blood all over him. Someone was pushing his motorcycle, then another old man followed suit with similar injuries. I told my people to station the two victims so that they can serve as witnesses to us. So I asked the workers to stop the work, but the workers insisted that we must continue with work since we had already mixed the cement, sand and stone.

"I told them that they should stop the work since I was the one that bought the cement, but they refused. So the soldiers said that they should continue the work with the cement that was mixed and when they finish it, they should then stop. But before you know it, we saw a group of youths from afar and they started stoning us. We later heard that they had set up a road block around Baptist area and they were beating people. So we all dispersed. That is as far as I can remember."


Asked if the Yan Kasa youth had told him why he must stop his renovation work, Alhaji Kabir said, "Yes, they said that they don't want any Muslim to come back to that area again. That is what they said, that no Muslim should return to that area." He was also asked if any Muslims live in the area, and he said, "There are some Muslims, but my house happens to be at the boundary which separates our area from their area. Down inside the area there were Muslims. There are even some that renovated their houses and returned during the [Ramadan] fasting period, but my house happens to be at the boundary and there are no Muslims there."

Alhaji Kabiru Muhammad also denied claims that the trouble started because he encroached upon someone else's land while renovating his house. He said, "I have heard many versions of this incident, but this is the first time I am hearing this. I have been living in that area for over twenty years. It is not even a new house. It is an old house that was burnt during the 2008 crisis. I am just trying to renovate it. There is no truth in this allegation and like I said, this is the first time I am hearing this."

Meanwhile, Minister of Police Affairs Dr Ibrahim Yakubu Lame said in Abuja yesterday that the police have been directed to fish out and bring to book those behind Sunday's latest mayhem in Jos.

He said at the police force headquarters Abuja while commissioning new trucks and motorcycles that those behind the violent crisis in Jos and other upheavals in all parts of the country and their sponsors will no longer have any place to hide, as the police have been given orders to fish them out by all means and prosecute them.

Lame said the police will go after those responsible for the violence, no matter how highly placed in the society, in order to put a permanent stop to wanton destruction of lives and property. He blamed such incidents on some highly placed individuals in the society and vowed that government will not allow them to destroy the economic and social fabric of the nation.

May this religious ignorance end in this our time. Its not a palatable news at all. To God be all the glory for your lives.

It has been an ongoing grudges. They were looking for just an excuse to unleash this anger and dislike for each other. 'cos, as a right thinking man, this is not enough reason to start killing one another.Another reason why bitterness is not good.

There is a need for tolerance in the area ,in order to allow for peaceful co-existence.

Maybe they will need to get out from other states and stay alone in their state. Since they don't like neighbors. But they are busy in other people's state that is at peace. What manner of people are they? orhhh!

Under other circumstances, I could have given you some background material on this issue. However since I have been affected in this latest madness on my way to collect day-old-chicks, I fear not being honest or objective enough. But to your question "What manner of people are they? I answer this: They are the kind of people who kill you just because you are what God made you.

Rubbish......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,That is why that part of the world is backward,Where ther is no vision ,the people perish.I am glad others are not longer turning the other cheek again,when they strike.This only happen because they are illiterates and not interested in progress.

Even illiterates have the rudimentary knowledge of good and evil. It is the basis of humanity. The lower animals only have that of self preservation.

It is not their fault,It is the fault of those that have been leaving them all the while,when they suffer irreparable loss and damages ,next time they will not only thik think twice but thrice.

We have to be careful not to stir up religion problems.