'500 killed' in attack on Nigerian village

At least 500 people are believed to have been killed by militants from a predominantly Christian group who attacked the Muslim village of Yelwa in central Nigeria, a senior Red Cross official said tonight.

Although an exact figure was difficult to obtain, Red Cross workers who interviewed witnesses and families of bereaved “estimate 500 to 600 dead”, said Umar Abdu Mairga, head of the Nigerian Red Cross team visiting the Hausa-speaking Muslim town of Yelwa following two raids by fighters from the largely Christian Tarok tribe.

And 100 people were reported missing following the attacks on Sunday and Tuesday, many of them women and children allegedly abducted by the attackers, Mairga added.