The next battleground

[womzilla]

Not for the US, not immediately, but I'm suddenly very afraid for Nigeria:

Thousands of Muslims Flee Nigeria Town After Attack

LAFIA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Thousands of Nigerian Muslims fled the town of Yelwa Friday after an attack by Christian militia killed hundreds of their townsfolk Sunday.

...

The origin of the conflict between the Christian Tarok and the Muslim Fulani is rooted in their competing claims over the fertile farmlands of Plateau state in central Nigeria.

But it has been stoked religious hatred and the sense among the Christian population that Muslims are outsiders in Plateau.

Survivors of the Yelwa massacre said they had buried 630 corpses in several mass graves around the remote market town after Sunday's attack. It was not possible to confirm the figure independently, but a senior policeman spoke of "hundreds" dead.

Presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said 630 dead was an exaggeration, but offered no further information.

...

Nigeria's population of 130 million is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.

Modern military and propaganda techniques and bitter post-colonial rivalries: a true marriage of hell.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

How does this map to the tribal conflicts that created Biafra?

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

The "Biafrans" were largely Christians. I believe they were in the Igbo-dominated southeast. The Plateau region also lies slightly to the SE, but the current conflict seems to center on local issues, and I don't think these, specifically, were salient in the late 1960s. (It's been a long time since I studied this stuff, though, so add a grain of salt here.)