DESPITE tightened security in the restive Nigerian city of Jos following recent sectarian massacres, a wave of revenge killings has claimed the lives of both Muslims and Christians.
The tension is so marked that inhabitants find it difficult to venture out in some parts of the central city, which lies on the faultline between the Muslim-majority north and the mainly Christian south.
“We now live in fear as a result of killings in the city, which makes it difficult for us to move about freely,” Muhammad Sani Mudi, spokesperson of the Hausa community of Muslims in Jos, said.
“We have lost 23 members to such secret killings in the past two weeks, while 58 others are still missing.”
But the same fear gripped the other side of the sectarian divide.
Donald Maiyaki, a Jos resident, said: “Everybody lives in fear in Jos due to these silent killings going on.
“I know of two Christian teenage students separately kidnapped in the past week. They are still missing”.
Nigeria’s acting president Goodluck Jonathan deployed troops in Jos after the clashes in January, which left more than 300 mainly Muslims dead.
For a while, the troop presence brought a semblance of peace.
But earlier this month, in apparent reprisal attacks, Muslim Fulani herdsmen went on a killing spree in raids on Christian villages.
And although police say around 100 people were killed, state government officials have insisted that at least 500 ethnic Beroms perished in the attacks.
Plateau state police chief Ikechukwu Aduba has acknowledged the current tensions.
“The city has been polarised,” he said recently.
The most effective solution, he said, would in the end be genuine reconciliation