JOS, Nigeria — The killing of Christians in Jos, Plateau state, in Nigeria continued April 24 with two journalists and five other people falling victim to Muslim youth gangs.
Nathan S. Dabak, an assistant editor at a newspaper of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) called The Light Bearer, and Sunday Gyang Bwede, a reporter at the publication, were stabbed to death April 24 at Gado-Bako in Jos North Local Government Area, along with an unidentified motorcyclist.
Dabak, 36, and Bwede, 39, had left their office on the morning of April 24 and were on their way to interview local politician Bulus Kaze when they fell into the hands of young Muslim men, said Pandang Yamsat, president of COCIN.
The state branch of the Nigerian Union of Journalists condemned the circumstances that led to the death of the two journalists.
Four other Christians also were killed April 24 in the Dutse Uku district of Jos’ Nasarawa Gwom area in a revenge attack following the discovery of the corpse of a teenage Muslim who had been missing. Their names were not released at press time.
The four Christians reportedly died, three of them stabbed to death, when hundreds of Muslim youths rampaged throughout the area in protest.
Earlier police reportedly exhumed eight bodies from shallow graves in a predominantly Christian village near Jos. The discovery of the bodies brought to 15 the number of corpses found in three days in an area fraught with Muslim aggression that has left hundreds of Christians dead.
Jos has become a flash point for ethnic and religious tensions in Plateau state, which is located between Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and Christian south.
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