THE killers showed no mercy. They did not spare women and children, or even a four-day-old baby, from their machetes.
• Refugees who fled the violence on Sunday morning. Picture: Getty
Yesterday, women wailed in the streets as a lorry carried dozens of bodies past burned-out homes towards a mass grave in the Nigerian village of Dogo Nahawa.
Rubber-gloved workers pulled ever-smaller bodies from the lorry and tossed them into the mass grave.
At least 200 people, most of them Christians, were slaughtered after Muslim herders from surrounding hills launched what appeared to be reprisal attacks in the early hours of Sunday, following sectarian clashes which killed hundreds in January.
One reporter counted 61 corpses, 32 of them children, being buried in the mass grave yesterday. Other victims would be buried elsewhere. At a local morgue, the bodies of children tangled with each other, including a nappies-clad toddler. One young victim appeared to have been scalped, while others had severed hands and feet.
The horrific violence comes after sectarian killings in this region in January left more than 300 dead, most of them Muslim. Some victims were shoved into sewer pits and communal wells.
Nigeria is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. The recent bloodshed has been happening in central Nigeria, in towns which lie along the country's religious fault line.
It is Nigeria's "middle belt", where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.
The Rev Pandang Yamsat, the president of a local Christian group, said he has urged his congregation not to respond violently to Muslims. However, he said he believes any peace talks would only give Muslims "time to conquer territory with swords".
In Dogo Nahawa, three miles south of Jos, 30-year-old resident Chuwanga Gyang said he heard a gunshot early on Sunday. He said he left his house through the back door, but stopped when he realised that the attackers were shooting to herd fleeing villagers towards another group of attackers carrying machetes.
He said he climbed a tree and hid, watching as villagers were killed and the attackers set homes alight.
He said the attackers asked people "Who are you?" in Fulani, a language used mostly by Muslims, and killed those who did not answer back in Fulani.
Plateau state spokesman Gregory Yenlong said police were seeking to arrest Saleh Bayari, the regional leader of the Fulanis, alleging he had made comments inciting the slaughter.
Jos has been under a dusk-to-dawn curfew enforced by the military since January's religious-based violence. It was not clear how the attackers managed to elude the military curfew.
Christian evangelist Musah Paul Gindiri said the police and military provided no security to the villages attacked.
"We have seen our flock is becoming very restive as the government is not trying to protect them," he said, warning that Christians would fight back if they were attacked again.
Acting president Goodluck Jonathan said security agencies would be stationed along Plateau state's borders.
