Troops Deploy after 13 Reportedly Killed in Central Nigeria

Soldiers rushed to restore calm to parts of central Nigeria on Tuesday after 13 people were reported killed in an attack on a village and unrest flared in other areas, authorities said.

Central Nigeria has seen a wave of violence in recent weeks, including Christmas Eve bomb blasts and reprisal attacks that killed at least 80 people as well as clashes between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups.

The surge in killings has occurred ahead of elections set for April.

"I am told that 13 people died in the dawn attack," said Plateau state police commissioner Abdulrahman Akano, adding that officers had been sent to the mainly Christian village of Wareng to verify.

Details of the attack were not immediately clear. The commander of a military task force in the region said unrest had occurred in other areas of the region as well and soldiers had been deployed to restore calm.

"We have quite a number of people killed," Brigadier General Hassan Umaru told Agence France Presse. "We are trying to contain each of these crises."

He could not immediately provide details on the unrest. Umaru first reported incidents in "several villages," but later said two villages had been hit.

A local politician also told AFP that 13 people were believed killed in Wareng, alleging Fulani Muslims had attacked Christian Beroms in the village.

Emmanuel Danboyi Jugul also accused soldiers of being involved in the attack, though Umaru strongly denied the claim.

Plateau state, including its capital Jos, has long been on edge, but unprecedented Christmas Eve bomb blasts added a frightening new dimension to the unrest.

An Islamist sect blamed for a series of attacks in the country's north claimed responsibility for the Christmas Eve explosions, but authorities cast doubt on the claim and attributed it to political motives with elections set for April.

Plateau state lies in the so-called middle belt between Nigeria's mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

Scores of people have been killed in clashes in the region in unrest many attribute to the struggle for economic and political power between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups.

Christians from the Berom ethnic group are typically referred to as the indigenes in the region, while Hausa-Fulani Muslims are seen as more recent arrivals.