Hundreds of Christians slaughtered in Nigeria

Another grisly atrocity struck Nigeria. More than 500 innocent Christian villagers, including toddlers and pregnant women were slaughtered early this week. Accounts from the scene tell the shocking chronicle of barbaric genocide.

The mass massacre occurred Sunday (March 7, 2010) when Muslim groups, described as herdsmen, raided Christian villages in Nigeria's central Plateau state. The Indigenous Christians and Muslims who immigrated to the area have been clashing over control of the land's resources. Witnesses said that Hausa-Fulani tribesmen came from surrounding hills, firing guns in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday. When startled villagers emerged from their homes they were either shot or hacked with machetes. Mass graves were dug to bury the victims.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was deeply concerned about the recent "appalling" deaths in Nigeria, and urged the country's political and religious leaders to solve the nation's crisis. "I am deeply concerned that there has been more inter-religious violence, with appalling loss of life," Ban said in New York. "I appeal to all concerned to exercise maximum restraint."

The UN's human rights chief, Navi Pillay, said she was appalled by the massacre but said the government had to tackle festering poverty. "Better security is clearly vital," Pillay said, "but it would be a mistake to paint this purely as sectarian or ethnic violence, and to treat it solely as a security issue.

"What is most needed is a concerted effort to tackle the underlying causes of the repeated outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence which Nigeria has witnessed in recent years, namely discrimination, poverty and disputes over land," she added. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch are still silent.

The main Canadian newspapers made a different choice in covering the massacre on March 9, 2010. The Toronto Star did not see the carnage as an important event as it is understood, by reporting about it on page A16 with only two sentences and a picture. The Globe & Mail told the story in 650 words on page A14 accompanied with a picture of the horrors while explaining that “reprisal killings believed motive for slaughter”. The National Post was the only newspaper to bring the massacre to the front page as the main headline: “Sectarian Slaughter Claims 500 in Nigeria”.