Nigerian slaughter shatters fragile balance

LAGOS - Soldiers were out in force in the troubled Nigerian city of Jos where aid workers were still counting the dead after a sectarian massacre in which hundreds of villagers were hacked to death or burned in their homes.

Jos has become an explosive fault line between the country's Muslim-dominated north and predominantly Christian south.

Sunday's killings left Nigeria's already embattled Acting-President, Goodluck Jonathan, scrambling to avoid a full-scale conflict in a state rocked by religious violence in recent years.

Estimates of the numbers varied widely, with one state official claiming more than 500 had been killed, while a Christian aid worker said 93 had been counted in one village alone. Police would confirm no more than 100 victims, but were still counting.

Authorities said troops had been sent to the state's borders to prevent arms or militants coming in and stop the clashes from spreading.

Funerals had already begun yesterday in the mainly Christian villages south of Jos that bore the brunt of the raids. In some places, bodies still lined the streets while in others Red Cross workers were examining charred remains in an effort to identify victims, officials said.

The latest attacks have been blamed on the Fulani, Muslim herders who locals say descended on communities just south of Jos.

"It seems the perpetrators were the Fulani and it may have been a reprisal attack," said Robin Waubo, a spokesman from the International Red Cross.

Thousands have died in sectarian violence in this region. Analysts said the raids might have been a reprisal for attacks on Muslim communities that left as many as 300 dead in January.

The massacre has given a shocking physical face to political divisions along ethnic and sectarian lines that are already threatening to pull apart Africa's leading energy producer.

Jonathan, who has stepped in after the prolonged illness of President Umaru Yar'Adua, appears to have little support from the country's powerful state governors and is already being accused of upsetting the north-south balance.

- INDEPENDENT