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afrol News, 24 October - The death of at least one hundred people in a massacre in Central Nigeria since Monday evening has now been officially confirmed, although local sources mention over 200 death victims. Government soldiers, revenging the slaughter of 19 colleagues, are said to be the perpetrators. Following local reports of the killing of hundreds of civilians starting in the Central Nigerian village of Gbeji, a regional government spokesman today confirmed the deaths of at least hundred person to the French news agency AFP. The spokesman also confirmed that the massacres in Gbeji, and later on the neighbouring villages Anyiin, Vaase and Zaki-Bian, probably were conducted by furious government soldiers. The four isolated villages are located in the border area between Benue and Taraba states, near the Cameroonian border. They are predominantly inhabited by the Tiv people. The slaughter of supposed civilians by government troops came as a reaction to the brutal killing of 19 soldiers in the area earlier this month. The soldiers had been killed and hacked into pieces by local Tiv militiamen. The Tiv people, which form the majority in Benue State, has for decades been involved in clashes with the Jukuns, which form the majority in Taraba State. The attack on government soldiers is believed to be rooted in growing suspicions that the army was backing the Jukun people against the Tiv, according to local analysts. This is confirmed in a recent petition by the Tiv Progressive Movement to federal President Olusegun Obasanjo, accusing the government of backing their rivals and alleging imminent ethnic cleansing against the community. "The Tivs appear now resigned to a serious, long war, believing that they will never get justice from the government in their dispute with the Chamba-Jukun people," the petition, quoted in the UN media IRIN, said. After the Tiv militia's slaughter of the 19 government soldiers, local army units were sent to track down the killers. According to the earlier quoted regional government spokesman, the track down on Monday evening developed into the massacre of Tiv civilians, or suspected militiamen, in Gbeji village, later in three neighbouring villages. Recent reports suggest the slaughtering goes on. According to local reports, the four affected villages are now close to deserted, the population having fled into the bush. The villages are reported to be looted and close to eliminated. Last reports suggest government soldiers have returned to the villages today to complete the destruction. "They say people have visited Zaki-Bian again to do a total levelling," a Benue state official told Reuters news agency by telephone from the state capital Mukardi. The Nigerian army categorically rejects any involvement in the massacres, which embarrassingly remind of the "pacification" attacks of earlier colonial troops. Nigerian President Obasanjo still has not commented the alleged army responsibility for the massacre, but is expected to take firm action if the allegations are confirmed. International pressure is already mounting against the federal government to take action. Amnesty International today demanded "a prompt, effective and impartial inquiry" into the massacre. Reacting to the military denial of the massacre, the organisation says, "Rather than seeking to deny, minimize or justify these extrajudicial executions, the government of Nigeria must - if it is to prevent further deaths - condemn the killings publicly and make it clear that those responsible will be held accountable." In November 1999 large-scale killings over several days were reported in the village of Odi, Bayelsa State, in the Niger Delta region, in reprisal for the murder of 12 police officers. Human rights groups and journalists were denied access to the area for several days and the government was accused of covering up the true facts. A local human rights group, the Civil Liberties Organisation, has called for an independent investigation and for immediate access to the area for human rights groups. President Obasanjo however rejected this - a decision that cost him harsh internal and international criticism.
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