JOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigeria's Red Cross says raids and reprisal
attacks have left 52 people dead in Christian villages in central
Nigeria.
A spokesman for a government security task force set up to curb years
of violence around Jos (jahs)says assailants numbering in the hundreds
launched what he describes as "sophisticated attacks" on several
villages near the city yesterday. He says police and soldiers battled
the attackers for hours.
A Red Cross official says more than 300 people have been displaced by
the violence. He also says a pair of lawmakers on their way to a mass
burial for the victims today were ambushed andkilled.
Jos is located in an area known asNigeria's "middle belt," between the
mainly Christian south and thepredominantly Muslim north. It's been
torn apart in recent years byviolence between ethnic and religious
groups. The rise of Islamist insurgents known as Boko Haram (BOH'-koh
hah-RAHM') has fanned the tensions.
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