Islamic Militants Invade Jos Village

A farmer was killed and two others are unaccounted for after around 200 people raided a Christian village near the central Nigerian city of Jos, burning and looting, the military said Monday.

The daytime raid was staged Sunday said Lieutenant Colonel Kingsley Umoh, spokesman of a special unit deployed in the volatile region of central Nigeria.

“Bandits numbering about 200, some armed with automatic weapons and shotguns while some …with machetes, spears, bows and arrows, invaded and attacked Gana Wuri and its environs in Riyom,” he said.

“Several houses were torched, property looted and over a hundred cows stolen.”One local herdsman was killed while two are still missing as a result of this mindless attack,” said Umoh in a statement.

The gang was suspected to be cattle rustlers from the neighbouring predominantly Muslim state of Kaduna, he added.

The security forces had arrested seven suspects and recovered 140 head of cattle, he said.Riyom is situated 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Jos, the capital of Plateau State which lies in the so-called so-called “middle belt”, between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south.

Jos city has long been the centre of ethno-religious violence in a country whose 150 million population is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims.