Attack on Nigerian Christian Village Leaves 8 Dead, Church Burned
Eight people in Nigeria were killed early Saturday when Muslim Fulani herdsmen launched an overnight attack on a Christian village near the city of Jos, reported officials over the weekend.
Among those killed was the wife of a pastor, his two children and a grandson.
Seven houses and a church were also burned during the attack in Maza, a village north of Jos, between 1:30 am and 5:00 am.
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Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kingsley Umo told Agence France-Presse that the attackers shot sporadically in the air to lure sleeping residents outside their homes before they were killed.
Troop reinforcements were deployed to Maza to restore order and reportedly shot at least two people.
The situation has since been contained.
The area in which the attack took place lies on the border of Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian and animist south.
Local rights groups say 1,500 people have died in inter-communal violence in the Jos region since the start of this year alone. Hostilities are fueled by social and economic problems as well as ethnic factors.
