A/HRC/16/53/Add.1
shops and also attacked churches and mosques. The inter-communal violence continued
during the following two days. On 20 January 2010, the Nigerian Army informed that it had
brought the situation in Jos under control and stopped the violence. There are allegations
that the military and police forces used excessive force in responding to the mob violence,
but no specific incidents are reported yet.
248. There are no reliable figures on the number of casualties of the violence. According
to one report reviewed, by the evening of 19 January 2010, the central mosque of Jos had
received 192 dead bodies, and at least 800 persons were injured, 90 of them seriously.
According to a second report, 151 bodies had been taken to the central mosque for burial by
19 January, while 65 Christians had been killed. A third report states that more than 460
people in and around Jos have been killed, while official Government estimates of the death
toll are significantly lower at 75 persons killed.
249. The violence on 17 January 2010 follows previous outbreaks of inter-communal
violence in Plateau State. The Special Rapporteurs summarized the information received
with regard to four major incidents in the past years:
250. From 7 to 13 September 2001, violence between Christian and Muslim mobs in Jos
resulted in the killing of hundreds of persons, possibly more than a thousand, the
displacement of tens of thousands, and massive destruction of property (see also the
mission report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief,
E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.2, para. 81). The village of Dilimi on the outskirts of Jos, which was
inhabited in majority by Muslims, for instance, was nearly entirely razed to the ground,
resulting in the destruction of about four thousand houses, eleven mosques, and two
schools. Only a few buildings belonging to Christians were left standing. In another
incident, in an attack on the University of Jos by Muslim men, at least twenty-five students
and at least six or seven university staff were killed. Eventually, the Nigerian Army
intervened and restored law and order. The Plateau State Government set up a judicial
commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Niki Tobi, which held public hearings and
received numerous submissions. However, its report was never published. Another judicial
commission of inquiry with a broader mandate to investigate the conflicts in Plateau,
Nasarawa, Benue and Taraba States was set up at the federal level in 2002. It concluded its
hearings and submitted its report to the President in April 2003. The report has not been
published and its conclusions are not known.
251. On 24 February 2004, fighting erupted between Christians and Muslims in Yelwa
(see also the mission report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief,
E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.2, para. 81). The number of victims is not known: according to the
police investigations a total of around 78 people were killed, according to a local
government official 265 people. The majority of the victims were Christians. In what
appears to have been the worst incident on 24 February 2004, a group of more than 50
young Muslim men attacked the compound of a church known as COCIN no.1. With guns,
machetes, swords and axes they killed at least 48 Christians, according to some witnesses
even more.
252. On 2 May 2004, large groups of attackers from the (mostly Christian) Gamai,
Montol and Tarok tribes surrounded Yelwa from different directions and blocked all the
main roads leading out of the town, displaying a high level of coordination. Witnesses
estimated that the attackers numbered several thousand. They invaded Yelwa town and
proceeded to kill Muslims with machine guns mounted on jeeps and machetes. In the
evening they withdrew, to return in the early morning hours and continue killing Muslim
inhabitants of Yelwa. In one of the incidents on 3 May, a small private clinic in the Angwan
Galadima area of Yelwa, Al-Amin clinic, was attacked. The attackers allowed the women
to leave, burned the clinic and killed 32 male patients inside, most of whom were being
treated for injuries sustained during the violence on the previous day. The police and the
49