Ethnic Violence in Nigeria Leaves Hundreds Dead

Hundreds of people, including many women and children, were killed in ethnic violence near the city of Jos in Nigeria over the weekend, officials say, reports BBC News.

They said villages had been attacked by men with machetes who came from nearby hills.

Troops have now been deployed in the area and dozens of arrests are said to have been made.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered security forces to prevent more weapons being brought into the area.

He has also sacked the country's national security adviser, Sarki Mukhtar.

Jos has been under a military curfew since January when at least 200 people died in clashes between Christians and Muslims.

The latest attacks are said to have been reprisals for the January killings.

The authorities say the villages are now calm after troops and military vehicles entered them.

An adviser to the Christian-dominated Plateau state government, Dan Manjang, told AFP: "We have been able to make 95 arrests but at the same time over 500 people have been killed in this heinous act."

Many of the dead in the villages of Zot and Dogo-Nahawa are reported to be women and children.

Mass burials took place on Sunday and scores more bodies were laid out in the streets of the three attacked villages, awaiting further burials on Monday.

Figures given for the death tolls in the ethnic clashes have varied widely, sometimes to achieve political ends or to reduce the risk of reprisals, or simply because victims are buried quickly.

Jos lies between the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria and its largely Christian south.