Nigeria: The Underlying Conflict in Jos

The official death toll from recent Christian-Muslim clashes in the Jos area of Nigeria's Plateau state was set at 109 by the state police chief March 10, a sizable reduction from the initial claims by state government officials that more than 500 had been killed in the March 7 attack. Though clashes periodically break out between Christians and Muslims in Jos, the real reason for the violence is not religious difference, but a struggle between ethnic groups for local political control.