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9 killed near restive central Nigeria city

09 September 2011 17:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Authorities say gunmen attacked a village outside a central Nigerian city beset by ethnic and religious slayings, killing at least nine people, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

The attack happened overnight Thursday in a village called Tsohon Foron, near the city of Jos, which sits on the dividing line between Nigeria’s largely Christian south and Muslim north.

Mark Lipdo, a coordinator for a Christian group called the Stefanos Foundation, told journalists Friday that gunmen killed seven children and their father, as well as a neighbor during the attack. Lipdo said witnesses blamed the attack on Muslim Fulani herders in the region.

Jos is the capital of Plateau state, which sits in Nigeria’s "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands and political and economic power.