Pope denounces 'atrocious' bloodshed in Nigeria

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday denounced the "atrocious" bloodshed in Nigeria after a massacre of Christian villagers, as police said 49 people would be charged over the killings.

As new gunfire added to the tensions around the flashpoint city of Jos, the head of the Roman Catholic Church added his voice to a chorus of international revulsion over the weekend slaughter which police now say left 109 people dead.

About 8,000 Nigerians have also fled their homes around Jos after the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

In his weekly general audience, the Pope offered condolences to the victims of the "atrocious violence causing bloodshed in Nigeria" and urged civil and religious leaders "to work towards security and peaceful co-existence".

"Violence does not resolve conflicts but only increases the tragic consequences," he added.

The three-hour killing spree early on Sunday was the latest wave of sectarian violence to engulf the Jos region where several hundred people were killed in Muslim-Christian clashes in January.

The security forces have faced heavy criticism over their failure to intervene to stop the latest killings at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

Although troop reinforcements have been deployed, state governor Jonah Jang said security lapses had worsened the carnage.

Mr Jang, a former senior air force officer, told reporters he had alerted Nigeria's army commander about reports of movement around the area and had been told that troops would be heading there.

"Three hours or so later, I was woken by a call that they (armed gangs) had started burning the village and people were being hacked to death.

But in a furious reaction yesterday, the army headquarters, in an official statement, slammed his remarks as "embarrassing, unfortunate, inciting and inflammatory".

The statement "coming from a chief executive and chief security officer of a state with substantial military background, it is unfortunate that ... Jang has demonstrated an embarrassing naïvety in interpreting the dynamics of land operations".

Mr Jang, it said, "resorted to inflammatory statements targeted at rubbishing the army".