AFRICA/NIGERIA - “This is not a war about religion” local Church sources in Nigeria tell Fides with regard to violence in central Nigeria

Thursday, 6 May 2004

Lagos (Fides Service)- “We will never tire of repeating that this is not a battle between Christians and Muslims it is a question of ethnic identity and politics ” a local Church source in Nigeria told Fides with regard to reports of fighting in Plateau state, central Nigeria. “We must be prudent with our speech: we must be wary of speaking of genocide, as some people have called it” the sources told Fides.
Abdulkadir Orire Nigerian Minister of Justice has said that at least 200 people were killed in clashes Yelwa. The attackers used automatic weapons and many in Nigeria are wondering where they came from. “Peopel talk of fighting between Muslims and Christians when in fact the reasons for the conflict are political, social and ethnic” the sources told Fides. The fighting is among Muslim Fulani herdsmen who want to take better land occupied by Christian Tarok tribesmen
On 26 February this year at least 48 people including women and children were massacred in a community of the Church of Christ of Nigeria at Yelwa. Plateau State was the scene of violence in 2001 when more than a thousand people perished in clashes between Christian and Muslim tribesmen. In 2002 about a hundred people were killed in ethnic clashes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/5/2004 righe 23 parole 274)


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