(Reuters) - Gangs of armed youths in the volatile Nigerian city of Jos attacked Muslims as they gathered to celebrate the last day of Ramadan on Monday, killing a number of them and burning their cars, witnesses and the military said.

The city, which lies between the country's mostly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south, has been a flash point for ethnic and sectarian tensions between the two faiths.

If the violence worsens or triggers reprisals, it may prove another major headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose security forces are already stretched by daily attacks from an Islamist sect in the northeast, which also claimed Friday's deadly bomb attack on the U.N. offices in Abuja that killed 23.

"The Muslim faithful went for their Eid prayers and on completion of the prayers they were trapped by the youths in that area," Brigadier General Hassan Umaru, commander of the military Special Task Force keeping security in Jos, told Reuters by telephone.

"They burned some cars, quite a number a of cars. The number of people killed, I can't give that yet. We are still checking with local hospital sources," he added. He said there had been several deaths.

Witnesses said Christian youths set up road blocks and attacked Muslims as they gathered in Jos's Gada Biu and Rukuba areas, shooting a number of them dead.

A Reuters witness saw several bodies. At least one was charred after being set alight.

Umaru said the youths had since been "pacified."

Nigeria has a roughly equal Christian-Muslim mix.

More than 200 ethnic groups live side by side in the West African country. Though generally peaceful, Nigeria has seen periodic bouts of religious violence, with Jos in particular showing a tendency to flare up.

At least 80 people were killed in bombings there last December 24 and clashes between Muslim and Christian youths.

(Reporting by Bello Buhari; Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Heavens)



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/29/us-nigeria-violence-jos-idUSTRE77S6Q520110829

So no comment on this so far? If this was other way round it would have getting to like 20pages

^^ I understand your view. Most of the time, people are more interested in discussing posts that are against Islam. Defensive posts, I call them. Whereas the ones meant for us to educate one another are deserted, except in certain cases(like the maulud) when they are controversial. I really cannot blame anyone for what they decide is priority. We probably all have different reasons for being here.

^^^^^

True talk, But your own comment seems late like everyone else, I guess this is your first time seeing this thread, likewise, as not all of us are sponsored to be on the internet all day long as a certain individual I know .   .    ., 

^^my first time actually

Am also seeing the thread for the first time too, But with 148 views so far i believe the likes of Frosbel,Drstan,Judek etc have seen this thread and turn blind eyes to the thread Shame on them.

Better research on the cause of the cause of the Jos crisis from 2001. Better still look for the reports of agencies, news agencies, groups and commissions as to how and who started the crisis.

Plateau was once the acclaimed home of peace and tourism till antagonism by the Hausa Fulani (HF) settlers (who have twisted a pure ethnic clash (btw HF & Beroms over political representations and chieftancy) and presented it as a religious one) has caused everyone else to lose his/her head. What happened didn't start overnight. Some people apparently are tired of turning the other cheek! Stealth attacks while they sleep, families murdered, bombing during their own religious celebrations, threats to their traditional institutions, connivance of soldiers to murder their people and much more.

That's the consequence of pushing otherwise peaceful and almost docile people to the wall! And who is crying victim now? Please!

When the HF present their demands they specifically want it for themselves e.g. Emir of Jos, political appointments, recognition of a new identity they have coined for themselves "Jasawa" from Hausa(wa) etc (not minding there are Yoruba, Igbira, Edo, Igala Muslims etc who have stayed as long in Jos). However when conflict erupts they scream "Muslims under attack" to attract the sympathy of other Muslims (when other Muslims like Yoruba are totally unaffected and other non Berom Christian groups don't join in the fracas). Of course the strategy works like a charm, always.

The Hausa Fulani should sit down with their Berom hosts and iron out their differences and not draw others into it. chikenan!

When dog bite man it is no story but when man bite dog then we have a story.

Oops Bashy demy, sori, dis my first time of seeing this thread,,wel how many were caught,,if the story is true, then, those youth should be treated like boko haram.

^^^ I hear you

ayusman16:

When dog bite man it is no story but when man bite dog then we have a story.

Meaning that when muslims attack christians, it is news because it is strange, but
when christians attack muslims, it is not news because it is normal and daily occurence

drstan:

Oops Bashy demy, sori, dis my first time of seeing this thread,,wel how many were caught,,if the story is true, then, those youth should be treated like boko haram.

Sincerely, would you have doubted a REUTERS story if it had been muslims that attacked christians?

Anyway this is the video. This happened on the day of eid after ramadan in 2011
And please see the impunity with which they displayed human head on a stake
How they cut up those people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9kSBEv5OkY

There was another video of cannibalism which was on youtube that was too gory and has been removed. I downloaded it before it was removed because I knew it was too cruel for youtube. I still have it
That one shows human beings being cut up and different people taking their "share" away
Mr Femi Fani-Kayode (a christian) Channels TV said that he saw a video wherein muslims were being cannibalised  by the Berom. He used it as an example of why he wanted a national conference

This is so sad. i also have the video in my laptop. I am very sure the infidels on this site have seen it but they refuse to comment in it. who knows if truly they are not the perpetrators of this inhuman act. I mean even if christians are been killed by muslims, there is no way we would kill their women but on the contrary they kill us and even humiliate our body capture our sisters and molest them. Which is why i don't blame Abu Muhammad Shekau for saying they are cannibals. Useless infidels. Oh muslims! its high time you realise that our religion is under attack.

Abujabir24:

This is so sad. i also have the video in my laptop. I am very sure the infidels on this site have seen it but they refuse to comment in it. who knows if truly they are not the perpetrators of this inhuman act. I mean even if christians are been killed by muslims, there is no way we would kill their women but on the contrary they kill us and even humiliate our body capture our sisters and molest them. Which is why i don't blame Abu Muhammad Shekau for saying they are cannibals. Useless infidels. Oh muslims! its high time you realise that our religion is under attack.

Please don't quote Abu Shekau. He is killing scholars. He is attacking muslims
Anyone who eats humans is a cannibal. That does not require Islamic knowledge to figure out
Abu Shekau is doing more harm to Islam than good.
Islam has rules and procedures. Nobody wins a war by just lashing out angrily
What has Islam benefitted from Abu Shekau's methodology
When we are under attack, we refer to the sunnah, use our knowledge of technology and strategy and then use limbs
Using only one is causing Muslims more problems. Which places are being destroyed by the Army now? Christian areas?
How many innocent muslims would be killed just because the army "under a state of emergency" say they are BH members?

“Indeed, Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from people but He takes away knowledge by taking away the scholars, such that when He leaves no scholar left, the people will turn to the ignorant as their leaders. Then they are asked to give religious judgments without knowledge, thus they go astray and lead others astray.” Muslim

Is Abu Shekau not helping by taking away scholars? Scholars can differ but killing them is extreme misguidance