Yelwa (Nigeria), May 07: Militants from a predominantly Christian tribe killed at least 500 people in attacks on a mainly Muslim village in central Nigeria, a senior Red Cross official said yesterday.
Although the exact death toll was not known, Red Cross workers "estimate 500 to 600 dead" after interviewing witnesses and inspecting a mass grave site where hundreds
were apparently buried, said red cross official Umar Abdu Mairiga.
He was leading a Nigerian Red Cross team visiting the Hausa-speaking Muslim town of Yelwa yesterday following raids on Sunday and Tuesday by fighters from the largely
Christian Tarok tribe.
One hundred people were reported missing following the attacks, many of them women and children allegedly abducted by the attackers, Mairiga added.
"We have done what we could do" to treat 58 injured residents still in the town, he said. At least 100 other wounded civilians were evacuated along with thousands of
others whose homes were destroyed, other red cross officials
said.
Nigerian police -- who traditionally downplay
casualty tolls in order to try to prevent retaliatory attacks
-- had initially reported 80 killed, a figure repeated by the
Nigerian Red Cross President Emmanuel Ijewere.
Bureau Report
