Nigerian security forces arrested 15 suspects after three people were killed in a fresh outbreak of sectarian violence near the flashpoint city of Jos, the army said Sunday.
The Muslim Fulani herdsmen died on Saturday in attacks believed to have been launched by Christian ethnic Beroms in the village of Tsung, just days after authorities lifted a curfew in the area.
“Fifteen suspects have been arrested,” Colonel Kayode Ogundele, the operations director of a special military unit in central Plateau State of which Jos is the capital, told AFP by telephone.
The three were reportedly searching for lost cattle about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Jos when dozens of youths murdered them before setting the bodies on fire.
An AFP reporter saw the bodies at an air force hospital in Jos city.
“We will arrest more people. Those arrested are helping us with our investigation,” Ogundele said. “For sure, those found to have had a hand in the incident, will face the law.”
The killings risk sparking fresh sectarian tensions, as Muslim herdsmen from the Fulani and Hausa ethnic groups launched attacks on five Christian Berom villages in March, killing more than 500 people, state officials say.
Local rights groups say 1,500 people have died in inter-communcal violence in the Jos region since the start of this year alone. It had been under curfew since earlier bloodshed in 2008.