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Massacre, again

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The body count from the perennial killing fields of Jos, Plateau State, does not matter anymore.
The number this time has been put at around 400. These were victims of the latest in the mindless slaughter of Nigerian citizens in Jos and some other parts of the Northern states by fellow Nigerians on grounds of ethnicity, religion or in the guise of seeking or protecting economic advantages and grazing grounds in predominantly farming communities.
This time, in what the authorities have dubbed a "reprisal" attack, scores of Christian and animist Berom, living in Dogo Nahawa village cluster in Jos were set upon in the early hours of Saturday and practically wiped out by suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
Apparently this organized murder was a diabolical attempt to even the score of last January's killings by those who felt most at loss. In fact, except for the number of casualties, events of last Saturday are all too familiar. The trajectories have all conformed to existing norm.
However, an added sickening twist to the recent Jos slaughters, (which began in the 1940s and 50s with murderous clashes between Igbo and Hausa-Fulani settlers over mineral mining rights) has been the deliberate targeting of the most vulnerable among target groups -- children, women, the aged and infirm -- who can hardly protect themselves.
Under international protocols and laws governing human behaviour in conflict situations, like the Geneva Convention, what the alleged Fulani herdsmen did in Jos South local government area, qualifies to be called "genocide." This may well be why the global community has risen in total condemnation of the latest Jos killings.

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