19th August, 2010
Officials with Nigeria’s security services say they have intercepted 52 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of ammunition rounds
heading for an area that has been the scene of religious violence.
According to Associated Press, the Borno state director of the Nigeria State Security Service says five men were arrested for trying to bring the weapons from neighboring Chad.
The news agency said Director Abdullahi Ahmed told reporters Wednesday that the men hid the rifles, ammunition and about $32,000 underneath vegetables and dried fish in two cars.
Ahmed says the weapons were heading for Jos, the epicenter of religious violence in Nigeria’s “middle belt,†where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.
Hundreds of Christians and Muslims have died in fighting there this year alone.