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produce and then burned the truck. “There were no weapons,” he added. He said the youth then burned nearby shops belonging to Hausa-Fulani residents, and the violence soon spread. 350 Christian leaders, on the other hand, allege that Hausa-Fulani in Zonkwa started the violence and burned a hotel owned by a retired military officer. 351 Muslim residents deny that Hausa-Fulani burned the hotel, claiming instead that the hotel caught fire when Christians burned Hausa-Fulani houses next to it. 352 Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm this incident. The fighting went on throughout the night. Muslim witnesses said they tried to defend themselves but only had sticks and stones and were outnumbered by the Christians. The police, including the divisional police officer (DPO)—the head of the police in Zonkwa—was seen in a police vehicle at various times during the night. The police shot tear gas at some point in an apparent effort to disperse the groups, but then left, witnesses said. Sometime about 2 a.m. soldiers arrived in Zonkwa but did not stay and instead continued on to the town of Kafanchan, witnesses said. 353 The mass killings began on the following morning, by which time the Christians were using more sophisticated weapons, including AK-47s assault rifles, Muslim witnesses said. When the Christians surrounded them, many of the Muslim residents decided to surrender. The Christian men divided the men from the women and children and then killed the men, witnesses said. Some of the Bajju men ordered the Muslims who surrendered to say “Jonathan should be the president,” recalled a Hausa-Fulani fruit seller. “Some of us said it,” he added, “but they continued to kill us.” 354 The mobs also went house to house, burning houses and killing Muslim men found hiding inside. A fuel vender recalled that some of the Muslim leaders advised that it was best to “surrender and beg for our lives.” 355 Many of the victims were killed after they surrendered. Human Rights Watch interviewed a mechanic, whose father and three brothers were killed in the violence. He recalled that the armed 350 Human Rights Watch interview with a shop owner from Zonkwa, Zango, May 1, 2011. 351 Human Rights Watch interview with Christian leaders, Zonkwa, May 1, 2011. See also “A Limit To Archbishop Fearon’s Lies and Misrepresentation of Southern Kaduna Peoples,” Southern Kaduna Peoples Union press statement, April 30, 2013. 352 Human Rights Watch interviews with Zonkwa residents, Zango, May 1, 2011. 353 A Human Rights Watch researcher visited Zonkwa on April 24, 2011—five days after the violence—and again on May 1, 2011. Human Rights Watch also interviewed nine Muslim witnesses from Zonkwa who relocated to the nearby town of Zango and to a displaced persons camp in the city of Kaduna, as well as Muslim and Christian leaders, and Bajju traditional leaders in Zonkwa. In March 2012, Human Rights Watch requested an interview with the police in Zonkwa but was referred by the police to the police headquarters in the state capital. 354 Human Rights Watch interview with a fruit seller from Zonkwa, Zango, May 1, 2011. 355 Human Rights Watch interview with a fuel vender from Zonkwa, Kaduna, August 16, 2011. “LEAVE EVERYTHING TO GOD” 98
men divided the Muslim men and women and gathered the men into a group in front of a house in Zonkwa. Some of the leaders of the armed men began discussing among themselves. Then five or six of them, armed with AK-47s, opened fire on the group, he said. He ran and managed to escape. “I recognized two of them that started shooting,” he added. 356 The Teacher Who Killed My Father A 19-year-old student at Government Girls School in Zonkwa, who was among a group of Muslim women who surrendered and was escorted by a Christian man to the police station, tried to save her injured father from the mob by dressing him up as woman. She described what happened: About six o’clock in the morning [on April 19], the Christians came to [the house where we were hiding] and asked us to surrender. They said the women should go to one side and the men should go to the other side. They told us that they will not kill women. It is only men that they will kill. One of the Christian men [then] escorted the women to [ward] the police station. He was carrying an old Muslim woman on his back. As we were going to the police station, I saw my father. He was kneeling down in front of a house. He was injured. We begged the Christian man that he should give the old woman to my father to carry. He agreed and gave my father the old woman. But my father was injured and couldn’t carry the old woman. I removed my wrapper [cloth skirt] and my hijab and gave it to him, because they were not killing the women. He put on the wrapper and hijab, and I carried the old woman on my back. [But] when we were walking, some of the Christians saw my father’s trousers, and they pulled him out of the group. My history teacher was among them. He had a long knife. He was with two Igbo people. One of them had a gun, the other had a cutlass. They started beating my father and he fell down. When I saw that, I dropped the old woman and went to my father. I told my teacher, “This is my father,” but he didn’t care. My teacher told me that I should go, but I refused. He gave me one slap. While I was crying he continued to beat my father. He [then] took a long knife and cut his throat. I was still standing in that place. He said, “I told you, you should go, but you refused.” I said, “Yes,” He gave me another slap. She eventually made it to the safety of the police station. 357 She later testified at the federal panel of 356 Human Rights Watch interview with a mechanic from Zonkwa, November 12, 2011. 357 Human Rights Watch interview with a student from Zonkwa, Kaduna, August 16, 2011. 99 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2013
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H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H “
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Copyright © 2013 Human Rights Watc
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Renewed Violence in Kaduna State, 2
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“Leave Everything to God” Accou
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On a sunny day in January 2010, in
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A mosque burned by mobs on April 18
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(above) A man stands in the rubble
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Photograph allegedly taken of a mob
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A mass grave for the victims of the
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RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT O
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RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PLATEAU STAT
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financial incentives or promise any
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Non-indigenes are often denied acce
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“peculiar attitudes” and will
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The conflict over indigene rights h
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II. Inter-Communal Violence in Plat
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curfew, which was widely ignored, a
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speech to the Nigerian Senate in Oc
Page 37 and 38: the police to investigate them. 78
Page 39 and 40: In the pre-dawn hours of January 19
Page 41 and 42: Satellite image of Kuru Karama 21 m
Page 43 and 44: communities. 102 When the Muslim le
Page 45 and 46: didn’t want to see the children [
Page 47 and 48: ut “[s]he was not able to reach m
Page 49 and 50: On January 20, some of the Muslim r
Page 51 and 52: Sabon Gidan Kanar Witnesses said th
Page 53 and 54: eeders association in Plateau State
Page 55 and 56: The March 2010 Dogo Nahawa Massacre
Page 57 and 58: mass grave: 16 men, 16 women, and 3
Page 59 and 60: man who survived the attack told Hu
Page 61 and 62: finish.” He continued, “Fightin
Page 63 and 64: IV. Impunity for the 2010-2013 Viol
Page 65 and 66: charge them with. Federal prosecuto
Page 67 and 68: moving about freely. One of the wit
Page 69 and 70: know us. They are still there in th
Page 71 and 72: provided Human Rights Watch with in
Page 73 and 74: Kafanchan Special Judicial Tribunal
Page 75 and 76: News of the Zango massacre sparked
Page 77 and 78: 2000 “Sharia Riots” In February
Page 79 and 80: killed scores of people before even
Page 81 and 82: government, found that 938 people i
Page 83 and 84: campus chanting pro-Buhari slogans
Page 85 and 86: cutlasses, and sticks, and they cam
Page 87: The police escorted the convoy of M
Page 91 and 92: Another Muslim man, whose 19-year-o
Page 93 and 94: Violence in Kafanchan The town of K
Page 95 and 96: gave a free rein to the Muslims—t
Page 97 and 98: The man said he later went back to
Page 99 and 100: the house. There were 10 men and 12
Page 101 and 102: free.” 405 Communal bloodletting
Page 103 and 104: identified. The team arrested a num
Page 105 and 106: about living their normal lives,”
Page 107 and 108: VIII. The Legal Framework Internati
Page 109 and 110: houses, shops, or places of worship
Page 111 and 112: The Nigeria Police Force has also b
Page 113 and 114: IX. The Anatomy of Impunity The fai
Page 115 and 116: arrest those they find at the scene
Page 117 and 118: advice, they refused to do that; [w
Page 119 and 120: more likely to know each other—an
Page 121 and 122: justice. For example, a Hausa woman
Page 123 and 124: villages in Plateau State, and from
Page 125 and 126: emaining cases. 523 The federal tri
Page 127 and 128: We asked the people who have been a
Page 129 and 130: Plateau State Attorney General Edwa
Page 131 and 132: violence to book,” he told Human
Page 133 and 134: Political Compromises That Reinforc
Page 135 and 136: who set their homes on fire, those
Page 137: Plateau and Kaduna—two states in
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