At least 22 people were killed on Saturday, August 14, in an attack on a convoy of Muslim pilgrims, attributed to a Christian militia. The massacre took place in Plateau State, in central Nigeria, a region that has been plagued by inter-religious clashes for 20 years.
It was at Gada-Biyu, along the road linking Plateau State to Kaduna State, that these Muslim pilgrims were ambushed. The attack is said to have taken place between 8am and 8:30am GMT on Saturday morning.
“A group of assailants, suspected to be Irigwe youths”, a predominantly Christian community, “attacked a convoy of five buses with Muslim pilgrims” on board, said a police spokesman Ubah Ogaba, “22 people were killed and 14 injured”. The passengers were returning from Islamic New Year prayers organized by Dahiru Bauchi, a Kaduna-based preacher.
Police say they have arrested six suspects. The governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, immediately condemned the attack. According to a statement from his spokesman, “security has been tightened around the area. This is necessary to prevent any risk of a conflagration, because Jos, the capital of Plateau State, is one of the Nigerian cities that has suffered the most inter-religious massacres since 2001.
The Plateau State government has declared a 24-hour curfew throughout Jos, after imposing 12-hour curfews already on Jos North and two other local governments. The governor’s decision to put Jos under curfew since Sunday afternoon for 24 hours is explained by the multiplication of tension.
