April 14, 2010
Lagos, Nigeria- More than 160 people have been arrested in connection with the massacre that happen last month. Of the 163 people arrested, 41 will be charged with homicide, spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said. The other 122 will be charged with rioting, arson and possesion of firearms, he added. More than 200 people died in the March 7th massacre, according an estimate.
They took place in predominately Christian towns near the city of Jos, where about 150 people, mostly Muslim, were reported killed in January. The religion is on a faith-based fault line between the Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian south.
Human Rights Watch said the violent attacks by Muslims with guns, machetes and knives were related to the previous attacks against Islamic communities and theft of cattle from herdsmen. The violence has put much of Africa's oil-rich and most popullous nation, Nigeria, on edge. Authorities took an unusual step of assurance, by sending text messages to residatns earlier in the month to try to put them at ease. The violence often shifts Chritians and Muslims against each other. But John Onaiyekan, a Roman Catholic archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, and former Nigerian Presidant Olusegun Obasanjo have both said that the violence is fuled more by other factors such as ethnic, social. and economic problems.
MY REACTION: My reaction to this is that im glad that the Law over there is taking action and making some sort of dent in the situation. My only worry is if they have all the people responsible and that they made no false accusations when arresting people. The day that the massacre happened, is the day that my brother returned home (U.S.) from Lagos Nigeria after working on a water project. It was a little scary for me knowing he was just there 24 hours ago.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/03/22/nigeria.violence.arrests/index.html?iref=allsearch
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