Mob retaliates after gunmen kill 12 in Nigeria bar

A person rides a bicycle in Jos, Plateau State in Nigeria.

Jos has seen bouts of sectarian violence in the past, but deadly, mass casualty attacks in the crowded city have been rare in recent years.

Photo: Reuters Gunmen killed at least a dozen people in Jos, the capital of Nigeria’s restive Plateau state, sparking retaliation from a mob that killed 10 more, locals said on Monday.

Plateau state, in central Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, experiences recurring violence in the countryside, mostly linked to land disputes between farmers and herders.

Jos has seen bouts of sectarian violence in the past, but deadly, mass casualty attacks in the crowded city have been rare in recent years.

At least 12 people were killed on Sunday when unidentified gunmen opened fire at a bar-cum-restaurant in the Anguwan Rukuba neighbourhood, in the Jos North district, said Plateau state Red Cross secretary Nurudeen Hussaini Magaji.

At least three people were killed when a mob formed to go after the attackers, he said, although others put the toll higher. “The attackers shot people at a joint.

We are told that 12 people died on the spot,” said Mangalle Idris, a local youth leader.

Then a mob formed and “attacked people that were either passing or doing business and they killed them”.

Idris said the mob killed 10.

A major road in Jos.

Plateau state, in central Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, experiences recurring violence in the countryside, mostly linked to land disputes between farmers and herders.

Photo: Reuters Kabiru Sani, the deputy leader of Jos North local council, said that 27 people in total were killed between the shooting and the retaliatory violence.

In the countryside, Plateau state’s mostly Christian farmers and mostly Fulani Muslim herders have been clashing for years over land access, sometimes erupting into massacres where entire villages are emptied out.

Because the violence falls across ethnic lines, some – including politicians in both Nigeria and the United States – have characterised the killings as religiously driven, a view rejected by most experts.

Posts on social media after the Anguwan Rukuba attack variously blamed – without evidence – Fulani Muslim herders or “bandits”, as rural criminal gangs are known, for targeting Christians on Palm Sunday.

The state government said investigations were “ongoing”, without giving a toll or naming suspects, and ordered a curfew in Jos North from Sunday to Wednesday.

Plateau has witnessed deadly sectaria

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