A clash in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA) left one person dead and many others injured on Wednesday, after the Plateau State Government relaxed the 48-hour curfew it imposed on Sunday.
The curfew followed a fatal attack in the Gari Ya Waye community of Angwan Rukuba on Sunday night, where at least 27 persons were killed.
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A resident of Angwan Rukuba junction, who didn’t want to be named, told our reporter that one Alkasim Umar was killed and many others were injured in the clash between some Muslim and Christian youths in the area.
He said police and soldiers later arrived at the scene and de-escalated the situation.
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“It was at the beginning of the unrest today that the police came. Then later on, soldiers came. They were not deployed at the junction. They came when the thing (unrest) was happening,” he said.
Several videos seen by our reporter showed people fleeing along Bauchi Road and around the Terminus Market as tension escalated.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that there was unrest in Duwala, Angwan Rimi, and Zololo areas of the town.
The unrest has forced residents who stepped out to their places of business to return home.
However, police and soldiers have been deployed and have calmed the situation in many areas, they said.
“It was through the intervention of the army that everywhere calmed down—everywhere calmed down after the army came. Currently, everywhere is inside, and the place is very calm,” a resident of Angwan Rukuba Junction told our reporter via telephone.
Absent security personnel
Those who spoke to this newspaper blamed Wednesday’s unrest on the government’s failure to deploy security personnel to ensure peace even as it relaxed the curfew.
There had been palpable tension as the victims of Sunday’s attack were mostly Christians, and sentiments have spread that the attacker targeted them for their faith. Islamic group, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), said four Muslims were among those killed.
One resident, Nasir, who drove from the Naraguta area to Ahmadu Bello Way, told PREMIUM TIMES that there were no security personnel throughout the journey, about a 10-kilometre drive.
Nasir left Ahmadu Bello Way shortly after arriving due to the unrest.
Jos has witnessed an on-and-off unrest for more than a generation now. Since the 2001 Jos crisis, Muslims and Christians have attacked each other in the city, usually sparked by a single incident.
The city had gradually grown polarised, so that most communities are either inhabited only by Muslims or by Christians. There are only a few communities where Muslims and Christians mix, an engineer of the recurrent crisis.
Prolonged curfew risks hunger
One resident in the Rikkos area, Sani, expressed concern that renewed tension may force the government to reintroduce the curfew, saying it would leave many families hungry.
Sani said he left his home early for the market to conduct quick business before the curfew ended at 3 p.m., only to return home without doing any business.
He explained that the two days without work strained his finances and those of other families.
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