Arrests made in Nigeria killings

11 Mar 2010, 1:22 pm   -   Source: AFP
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Nigeria's state police say 49 members of the mainly Muslim Fulani clan have been arrested following the weekend attacks on Christian villages. (Getty)

Nigeria's state police say 49 members of the mainly Muslim Fulani clan have been arrested following the weekend attacks on Christian villages. (Getty)

Nigeria's state police say 49 members of the mainly Muslim Fulani clan have been arrested following the weekend attacks on Christian villages.

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Nigeria's state police say 49 members of the mainly Muslim Fulani clan have been arrested following the weekend attacks on Christian villages.

"We have 49 Fulanis arrested immediately after the attacks and in their statements they have confessed that they were on a revenge mission," Plateau State commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba told reporters.

"Charges for those arrested will be conspiracy and culpable homicide," he said.

Pope denounces violence

Earlier Pope Benedict XVI denounced the "astrocious" violence.

As new gunfire added to the tensions around the flashpoint city of Jos, the head of the Roman Catholic Church added his voice to a chorus of international revulsion over the weekend slaughter which police now say left 109 people dead.

About 8,000 Nigerians have also fled their homes around Jos after the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

In his weekly general audience, the pope offered condolences to the victims of the "atrocious violence causing bloodshed in Nigeria" and urged civil and religious leaders "to work towards security and peaceful co-existence".

'Violence doesn't resolve conflicts'

"Violence does not resolve conflicts but only increases the tragic consequences," he added.

The three-hour killing spree early Sunday was the latest wave of sectarian violence to engulf the Jos region where several hundred people were killed in Muslim-Christian clashes in January.

The security forces have faced heavy criticism over their failure to intervene to stop the latest killings at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

Troops deployed

Although troop reinforcements have been deployed, state governor Jonah Jang said security lapses had worsened the carnage.

Jang, a former senior air force officer, told reporters he had alerted Nigeria's army commander about reports of movement around the area and had been told that troops would be heading there.

"Three hours or so later, I was woken by a call that they (armed gangs) had started burning the village and people were being hacked to death.

But in a furious reaction Wednesday, the army headquarters, in an official statement, slammed his remarks as "embarrassing, unfortunate, inciting and inflammatory".

The statement "coming from a chief executive and chief security officer of a state with substantial military background, it is unfortunate that ... Jang has demonstrated an embarrassing naivety in interpreting the dynamics of land operations".

Jang, it said, "resorted to inflammatory statements targeted at rubbishing the army".

Earlier, Human Rights Watch researcher Eric Guttschuss added his concerns over the response by the security forces.

"We are deeply concerned about the failure of the security forces. There's been a slow reaction of the security forces," he told AFP.

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