Nigerians trade blame over violence

Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria are accusing each other of starting the recent clashes in which hundreds of people were killed in and around the city of Jos in Plateau state.

Nigerian police said on Tuesday that at least 326 people have died in the violence in Plateau.

However, estimates from medical and aid workers and religious and community leaders put the toll at more than 550.

Both Christians and Muslims seem to agree that a dispute over a house in a mainly Christian district of Jos sparked the unrest. The house was destroyed in the religious violence of 2008 and its Muslim owner started to rebuild it on January 17.

What the area’s majority Christian Biroms and the minority Muslim Hausas strongly disagree on is over who is to blame for the killings.