Nigeria police probe 48 deaths in Yelwa communal violence

  Jos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigerian police authorities Thursday said investigations were continuing into the killing of 48 people, including women and children, by suspected militants in the Yelwa community in central Plateau state Tuesday, during a resurgence of the incessant communal/sectarian violence in the state.
   Plateau Police Commissioner Innocent Ilozuoke told journalists in Jos, the state capital, that the combined team of police and soldiers had succeeded in restoring peace to the area, though he said no arrests had yet been made in connection with the killings.
   He said the 48 victims were killed inside the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), where they sought refuge from the attackers.
   The police boss would not speculate on the identity of the militants, but local media reports Thursday said they were northern Fulani insurgents from neighbouring Niger and Chad, allied to their Nigerian tribesmen in the Yelwa area.
   "I have moved in my Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB), Criminal Investigation Department," Ilozuoke said.
   Yelwa is situated in the Shendam local council in Plateau, where as many as 66 people, including four anti-riot policemen, were killed prior to Tuesday's attack in the area.
   Shendam, in the southern part of the state, is a hotbed of violence between the original inhabitants identified as the Tarok, who are mostly Christians, and the so-called Fulani settlers, who are Muslims.