Attackers kill 16, burn homes in north Nigeria town

Reuters

7 May 2011

Attackers kill 16, burn homes in north Nigeria town

* Unrest rooted in ethnic, religious rivalries

* Area was flashpoint during elections

BAUCHI, Nigeria, May 7 (Reuters) - Attackers have killed at least 16 people and set fire to more than a dozen houses in a town in northern Nigeria that has been beset by years of sectarian violence, police said late on Friday.

Residents said the attack on the town of Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi state appeared to have been an act of retaliation for earlier killings in the area, although police said the perpetrators had yet to be identified.

"Sixteen people have been confirmed killed by unidentified attackers," Bauchi police commissioner John Aba Kasanga said.

Bauchi neighbours Plateau state in Nigeria's "Middle Belt", a region where the mostly Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south and where communities from different ethnic and religious backgrounds sit side by side.

* Town has been hit by years of sectarian violence