Cops 'outgunned' by Christians
21/05/2004 20:01 - (SA)
Lagos - Nigerian police were overwhelmed during this month's attack on Muslims in the town of Yelwa due to the sophistication of the tactics and weapons of the Christian attackers, the minister of police affairs said.
"From the report I got from the inspector general of police, guerrilla warfare was employed by combatants," during the attack which left more than 200 Muslims dead in the market town in Plateau State, Broderics Bozimo said.
"It was a situation that the police alone could not handle," he said, during a televison interview late Thursday. Witnesses in Yelwa said that the attackers were armed with AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Armed soldiers and riot policemen have been deployed to Yelwa and nearby villages and President Olusegun Obasanjo last Tuesday imposed a state of emergency on Plateau and suspended its elected governor for at least six months.
He appointed a retired army general to take emergency powers.
Christian militiamen attacked Yelwa, 300km east of Abuja, on May 2, slaughtering more than 200 people and sending shockwaves across this unruly nation of 130 million people.
In reprisal Muslim youths went on the rampage in the northern city of Kano, killing dozens of Christians.
More than 10 000 people have been killed in various outbreaks of mob violence since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.
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