10-year-old boy killed in Jos school attack

LAGOS (AFP) – A ten-year-old boy was on Tuesday
killed when an assailant fired a heavy weapon at an
Islamic school in the city of Jos, an area plagued by
sectarian violence, officials and residents said.
Witnesses described a man dressed in red firing
what appeared to be a rocket launcher at the
school in the Bukuru area of Jos. Initial reports had
suggested a local government building was the
target.
"An Islamic school was the target of the attack,"
said Pam Ayuba, the spokesman for the governor of
Plateau State, where Jos is the capital.
Police spokesman Emmanuel Abuh said the
assailant fired a "rocket propelled grenade" from
the Jero road that runs adjacent to the school.
"A 10-year-old boy was hit on the head… and he
died," said Abuh, adding that the attacker fled the
scene before he could be apprehended.
The victim was said to be a bystander and not
enrolled at the school where students were
studying for exams when they came under attack,
according to locals.
A resident of the targeted area said a lone attacker
"dressed in red" stood on the street outside the
school and fired a heavy weapon.
"The missile deflected and hit the wall of the
school, killing (the young person)," resident
Murtala Abdullahi told AFP.
Nurul Islam is a seminary in Jos's Kerana
neighbourhood that combines both secular,
Western-style education with an Islamic
curriculum.
Two weeks ago, a bomb was discovered on its
premises which was defused before it exploded,
Abdullahi and other residents said.
Ayuba charged that the "attack is a deliberate
effort to distract the security services."
Tension is high in Plateau state after the military
said it planned to launch campaigns to root out
gunmen suspected of belonging to a mainly
Muslim group of herdsmen accused of killing more
than 100 people earlier this month.
On July 7, gunmen suspected of belonging to the
Fulani tribe stormed mainly Christian villages and
killed more than 80 people.
Another 22 people, including two senior politicians,
were killed the following day in an attack on the
funeral of the previous day's victims. The
graveyard raid was also blamed on the Fulani.
Mustapha told AFP on Monday that hundreds have
reportedly fled from several areas expected to be
targeted by the imminent military operations.
Fulani pastoralists have long-standing grievances
against Plateau state's mainly Christian leaders,
including disputes over land rights and claims of
discrimination.
Jos has also been attacked several times by the
radical Islamist group Boko Haram, responsible for
scores of attacks across northern and central
Nigeria since the middle of 2009.
Aside from inter-communal violence involving the
Fulani, Jos has for several years seen sporadic
clashes between Muslim and Christian groups,
which have left thousands dead.
Plateau state is in Nigeria's so-called "Middle Belt,"
on the dividing line between the mainly Christian
south and majority Muslim north in Africa's most
populous country.
Amid the security crisis, political and security
leaders, including Governor Jonah Jang, held a
meeting in Jos on Monday.
They declared "that Plateau state is under siege" in
a statement issued after the talks and said more
dialogue between key leaders of both dominant
faiths was needed to stem the violence.