American Pendulum

As the day went on, he heard about the two others. He went to one of the villages to look for himself but decided to stay on the boundaries and not get too close as he could not cope with the stench and the terrible wounds he saw on babies and children in particular.

He believes the Muslim occupants of the villages were tipped off as they all left before the massacres, he reported. Also, he believes a significant organisation was behind the killings because they happened during curfew with the army in the area, as it has been since the January killings.

Nearly all the photographs received at The Times have dead children in them. They are too distressing for publication here.

The Archbishop said: ‘It was not a good sight at all. The villagers had no chance whatsoever. They were slaughtered. I could see machete wounds in the necks of children. Kids from age zero to teenagers, all butchered from the back, macheted in their necks, their heads. Deep cuts in the mouths of babies. The stench. People wailing and crying. Some have lost their voices. I could not stand it. From what I saw from a distance, it was over 100 killed in one village. I don’t know what sparked it off. I thought we were making headway after the previous crisis in January.

‘There have been several meetings (between Muslims and Christians). I myself and a Muslim cleric on our own initiative have just started getting together with a couple of senior leaders and thinkers, trying to see if we could bring our own contribution to a peaceful co-existence. This came from somebody else.

‘I think it is all Christians killed. The Muslims who were living with them in the villages I heard had left the village. We are hoping now that the government of Nigeria will see that we have a very, very big problem. The kind of cooperation that came into play – that could violate a curfew – that could take the law into their own hands – it is a very strong organisation.

‘I worry which willage, which town, which area will be next. It affects me deeply. I do not like to see human life destroyed like this. God created life as life, He creates human beings to come into the world. I do not care what religion a person is, it is a matter of life. It is not right that life should be expended like this, for whatever reason.’
He sounded close to tears as he spoke, and at that point we had to stop talking because he was unable to continue.

The Barnabas Fund reports: Three villages were attacked between 3am and 5am on Sunday morning by busloads of armed Muslim Fulani. The number killed is unknown but certainly several hundred have been murdered, including women and children and entire communities have been wiped out. In one village alone more than 100 have been killed and corpses of those attempting to flee are still being discovered. All the victims are reportedly non-Muslims. Some survivors only avoided being killed after they were wounded by pretending to be dead. Some of the information provided about the attack has come from them. It is reported that the Muslims who lived in those area had already evacuated before the attack.

Concern has been expressed that the military who are meant to be responsible for security initially did nothing to protect the villagers.

Nigerian Best Forum has more: ‘Some witnesses said villagers were caught in fishing nets and animal traps as they tried to escape and were then hacked to death. Mud huts were also set on fire.’

Jonathan Rivlin of The Henry Jackson Society says: ‘It is unacceptable that the United Nations, African Union or any other international or religious group has yet to comment or call for any action on the ongoing religiously fuelled massacre.

‘Where is the Vatican? 500 Christians have just been murdered and yet again no comment.

‘Seeing that it’s fundamentally Muslims versus Christians, it’s time for religious leaders to stand up and condemn this sort of violence.

‘This is not an isolated domestic issue, but rather one between the world’s two largest religions, and one that has the possibility to surpass the borders of Nigeria.’

Nigeria is the continents’ second largest oil exporter, but has increasingly becoming plagued by bitter domestic disputes, political uncertainty, and religious conflicts.

The society offers an explanation of the roots of the latest violence: ‘Some have suggested that January’s religious outbreak began over a football match while others say it was as a result of the reconstruction of homes damaged in the 2008 clashes.