JOS, Nigeria, (Reuters) – A Nigerian senator and several others were killed today when gunmen attacked a mass burial for 63 victims of violence the previous day in volatile, ethnically mixed Plateau state, a government official said.
Saturday’s clashes between security forces and armed Fulani herdsmen erupted after the military said they intervened when fighting broke out between Fulani migrants and indigenous tribes in the Barkin Ladi district in Plateau.
A spokesman for the Fulani said the military opened fire on them because the government favours indigenous tribes.
The Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed several suicide bomb attacks this year on churches in Jos, the Plateau capital, prompting a Christian backlash against Muslims. There was no sign Boko Haram was involved in this weekend’s fighting.