Fresh tensions in central Nigeria left “many” houses burnt on Sunday and led security forces to rush to the area to restore calm in the latest flare-up in the region, police said.
The country’s central region has been hit by a wave of violence in recent weeks, including Christmas Eve bomb blasts in the city of Jos and an attack on Muslims on Friday night.
“Many houses were burnt,” said Abdulrahman Akano, police commissioner for Plateau state, where Jos is the capital. “Six people were seriously injured and being treated in hospital.”
Akano had earlier in the day reported that youths set one house ablaze in the Bukuru area when the owners had gone to church and Christian residents sought to retaliate.
Jos and the surrounding region has long been on edge, but unprecedented Christmas Eve bomb blasts added a frightening new dimension to the unrest. The blasts and resulting clashes left at least 80 people dead.
An Islamist sect blamed for a series of attacks in the country’s north claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve explosions, but authorities cast doubt on the claim and attributed it to political motives with elections set for April.
On Friday, an attack on two buses outside Jos carrying Muslim passengers left one killed and eight missing. The eight missing were feared dead.
Clashes also occurred in Jos on Saturday, leaving 11 dead, according to the commander of a military task force in the region.
Plateau state lies in the so-called middle belt between Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.
Scores of people have been killed in clashes in the region in unrest many attribute to the struggle for economic and political power between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups.
Nigeria has seen an upsurge in violence in recent weeks ahead of the April elections, including a deadly bombing in the capital Abuja and violence targeting political rallies.
On Friday, attackers targeted a rally for a prominent politician in Nigeria’s oil-producing region, killing several people and wounding scores of others.
The attack occurred as Timi Alaibe returned to his home in Bayelsa state from the capital Abuja after resigning from his post as President Goodluck Jonathan’s adviser on the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
The rally took place at his home and compound in the town of Opokuma. Alaibe resigned to run for governor in Bayelsa in the April elections.
In addition, an Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has been blamed for a series of attacks in the country’s north, including raids on churches.
Unknown gunmen opened fire late Friday at an open-air tavern in the northeastern city of Gombe, killing six people, but police said they did not know who the attackers were or their motives.