Christians Under Attack

Nathan Dabak, deputy editor of the bimonthly Light Bearer and reporter Sunday Gyang Bwede, were pulled from a motorcycle and killed on Saturday evening as youths rioted in the aftermath of the death of a Muslim teen.

Jos, capital of the central Plateau state, was the epicentre of inter-religious violence that local rights groups say killed 1,500 people since the beginning of the year.

"They were macheted in an area that is predominantly Muslim and one can deduce that the killers were Muslim," said Katdapba Gobum, chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Plateau State.

Relatives of one of the men called his cellphone when he failed to turn up for an appointment. The phone was answered by a Hausa-speaking man who claimed to have killed the journalist. The motorcyclist who carried them was also killed.

Plateau state sits on a line between Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south. Because of the recent violence in Plateau, journalists cannot freely move around the state to do their work, said Gobum.

 

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