DATE : 3.9.2010
SUBJECT : Human Rights, Economic Opportunity, War

In Jos, Nigeria, police say they have arrested more than 90 people related to Sunday's attacks by Muslim Hausa-Fulani herders against three mostly Christian villages near Jos, leaving more than 500 people dead. Al Jazeera reported that some described the violence as a reprisal attack for the more than 400 people killed in January clashes between Christians and Muslims. However, Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Jos, said while many view Sunday's violence as religion-based, her interviews indicated the violence was related to indigenous groups, mainly Christian, and migrants and settlers, mainly from the Hausa-speaking Muslim north, fighting over access to resources. It has been an historically common theme for issues such as religious differences to become inflamed under circumstances where basic needs are at stake, whereas it has also been common for such differences to become more tolerated when resources are equally available.