killed on Sunday when gunmen attacked a mass burial for 63 victims of
violence the previous day in volatile, ethnically mixed Plateau state,
a government official said.
Saturday's clashes between security forces and armed Fulaniherdsmen
erupted after the military said they intervened when fighting broke
out between Fulani migrants and indigenous tribes in the Barkin Ladi
district in Plateau.
A spokesman for the Fulani said the military opened fire on them
because the government favoursindigenous tribes.
The Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed several suicide bomb attacks
this year on churches in Jos, the Plateau capital, prompting a
Christian backlash against Muslims. There was no sign Boko Haram was
involved in this weekend's fighting.
Plateau is in the "Middle Belt", where the largely Christian
southmeets the mostly Muslim north. It has for years been a
tinderboxof ethnic and religious rivalries over fertile land and power
between local people and migrants from other areas.
Senator Gyang Dantong of the ruling People's Democratic Parthy and a
state lawmaker were among those shot dead while attending the burial
of victims of Saturday's clashes. Burials were also under way in other
parts of the state and the final death toll is likely to be higher.
"Tragedy. Serving Senator died following Fulani attack on mourners at
a mass burial of 63 victims of a Fulani attack on over9 villages the
previous day," said Istifanus Gyang, security adviser to the Plateau
state governor.
Tit-for-tat killings between religious and ethnic groups haverun on
for several days in Plateau in the past. In January 2010, more than
300 people were killed and in November 2008 over 700 were killed in a
week of fighting.
Security experts believe Boko Haram's attacks on churches in central
and northern Nigeria are an attempt to provoke a wider religious
conflict inside Africa's biggest oil producer.
But much of the violence in Jos is a result of long-running
ethnictensions and local political power struggles, and is not
instigated by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram has killed hundreds this year in its insurgency against
President Goodluck Jonathan's government. The sectwants to carve out
an Islamic state in the north of Africa's most populous nation
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