Ethnic clash claims 630 lives

2004-05-06 16:49

Yelwa, Nigeria - At least 630 people were killed in an attack on a Nigerian Muslim community by a Christian ethnic militia, local people and a senior Red Cross official said on Thursday at the site of a mass grave.

"The figure is correct. All the bodies were gathered at the traditional leader's house and then were buried behind it," Umar Abdu Mamairiga, the Nigerian Red Cross's national disaster management officer, said.

"They are talking about 630, but there might be more," he added, confirming a figure given to reporters by local councillor Yakubu Haruna, 35, by the side of a fresh 50 by 10 metre burial plot in the central rural town of Yelwa.

- AFP