2010-04-06
JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Three Nigerians were killed in clashes between Christian and Muslim gangs in the central city of Jos, where hundreds have died in similar violence this year, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

A rally by the Christian Association of Nigeria briefly turned violent on Monday when members of the group fought with a Muslim mob. Police said the situation was now under control and no further violence was reported on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, in the course of the pandemonium, three persons lost their lives and some were injured," said Brigadier General Donald Oji, spokesman for the region's special task force.

The military has imposed a curfew on much of Plateau State since January, when sectarian violence killed more than 400 people.

After the January unrest, clashes flared again in March with attacks on the mostly Christian villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat just south of Jos, in which hundreds more people were killed.

Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, lies at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south, a region known as the "Middle Belt".

Fierce competition for control of fertile farmlands between Christian and animist indigenous groups and Muslim settlers from the north have repeatedly triggered unrest in the region over the past decade.