At least 150 bodies were recovered from wells after Muslim-Christian clashes in central Nigeria, a village head said Saturday, taking the unofficial death toll past 450.
"So far we have picked 150 bodies from the wells. But 60 more people are still missing", Umar Baza, head of Kuru Karama village near the city of Jos, told AFP by telephone.
"We took an inventory of the displaced people from this village, sheltering in three camps, and we realise that 60 people can still not be accounted for," he said.
Kuru Karama is a Muslim enclave in a Christian region 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Jos.
The head of the Muslim volunteer team for the victims' burial, Mohammed Shittu, said: "now we have 150 bodies in all, taken from the wells as from Thursday.".
At least 364 Muslims died in the clashes, according to figures provided by Muslim leaders, a spokesman for global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Saturday.
"As of yesterday (Friday), at least 364 Muslims have died in Jos, including those found in wells in Kuru Karama. This information was provided by Muslim officials in Jos," the HRW's Eric Guttschuss told AFP by telephone from Washington.
"The Christian Association of Nigeria said that they have not compiled their estimates on death toll. Hopefully, they will do that before the weekend runs out," he said.
But earlier this week a Christian leader, the reverend Chung Dabo, secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Jos, told AFP that 55 Christians had died..
The unofficial death toll is estimated at 464.
President called on to investigate
Earlier Saturday in a statement, HRW urged Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to order "an immediate criminal investigation into credible reports of a massacre of at least 150 Muslim residents" of Kuru Karama.
Dozens of them were "stuffed down wells or in sewage pits," HRW said in the statement.
The state government has given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out last Sunday in Jos, capital of Plateau State, and spread to nearby towns and villages.
Some 18,000 people fled the fighting to take refuge in military barracks, churches and mosques around the city, according to the Red Cross, as the government called in the army to restore order.
An AFP reporter in Jos Saturday saw scores of residents fleeing the city in cars and buses.
Religious leaders and medical workers said they had counted 288 bodies by Wednesday, before the dead started to be recovered from Kuru Karama. Another 26 bodies were found and buried Saturday in a Jos cemetery.
Armed men attacked and 'burned people alive'
HRW quoted witnesses as saying groups of armed men -- believed to be Christians -- attacked the largely Muslim population of Kuru Karama on Tuesday morning.
"After surrounding the town, they hunted down and attacked Muslim residents, some of whom had sought refuge in homes and a local mosque, killing many as they tried to flee and burning many others alive," the statement said.
Christian and Muslim leaders in Plateau State have both said the unrest owed more to the failure of political leaders to address ethnic differences than inter-faith rivalries.
Jonathan pledged that the ringleaders responsible for the violence would be brought to justice, and ordered the army to take over security of the affected regions and sensitive neighbouring areas.
Jos has been a hotbed of religious violence in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between followers of the two faiths.
An estimated 200 people were killed in religious clashes in the city in late 2008.
Business was slowly picking up in Jos Saturday with more more shops opening and roadside hawkers displaying their wares, while long queues of residents scrambled for water at public taps.
Although no military patrols were visible, checkpoints still remained.
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