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An estimated 500 people were massacred in Nigeria over the weekend in what is being seen as a retaliatory attack. The attacks were aimed at a mostly Christian community in a number of villages south of the town of Jos. Survivors interviewed by Human Rights Watch spoke of the perpetrators being masked men speaking the languages of Hausa and Fulani which are spoken by nomadic, mostly Muslim cattleherders. In January hundreds of the Hausa Muslim community were attacked and killed by Christian mobs in the nearby village of Kuru Karama. Nigeria’s acting president Goodluck Jonathan deployed patrols in response but many of the smaller villages remained unprotected. Clashes between groups of different ethnicities have plagued Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999. One of the worst incidents took place in September 2001 when 700 Muslims and Christians were killed after relatively minor sparks caused major clashes. But since then, similar incidents have taken place in 2008, and now twice in 2010.

GUEST: Eric Guttschuss, Nigeria Researcher with Human Rights Watch

For more information, visit www.hrw.org.