UN rights chief "appalled" by Nigeria slaughter

Mar 9, 2010, 11:00 GMT

Geneva - Nigeria's restive central region should have been better protected to prevent massacres, the United Nations human rights chief said Tuesday, adding that she was 'appalled' by recent violence.

At least 200 people were slaughtered over the weekend when Muslim herdsmen raided Christian villages near the central Nigerian town of Jos. Most have been buried in a mass grave.

'After the January killings, the villages should have been properly protected,' UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, adding that 'women and children and elderly people were among those who were viciously slaughtered.'

The weekend massacre was the latest outbreak of violence between indigenous Christian and migrant Muslim groups in Plateau State, where struggles remain over control of land and resources.

More than 300 people died in January when rival gangs of youths clashed in Jos, burning mosques, churches and businesses.

Pillay said 'it would be a mistake to paint this purely as sectarian or ethnic violence.'

In a statement, she noted allegations that local politicians 'may have exploited socio-economic, ethnic and religious divisions.'

She urged the government to 'tackle the underlying causes of the repeated outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence which Nigeria has witnessed in recent years, namely discrimination, poverty and disputes over land.'

UN estimates indicate over 1,000 people may have been violently killed in the last three years in the Jos region. Across the country, more than 10,000 people have died in what have been described as ethnic clashes, since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999.