Clash in Nigeria leaves 13 Dead

On January 11, 2011, at least 13 people had been left dead outside the city of Jos due to ethnic tensions. The violence began January 7, after a bus full of Muslims became lost when returing to the city from a wedding. By Monday, the streets of the city had been deserted to avoid even more violence. Jos is located in the middle of Nigeria, and istherefore a hot zone for clashes between the Muslim North and the Christian South. In the past decade there has been more and more violence between the two religious groups. On Christmas Eve and Christmas day, there were a set of bomb set off right outside of the city of Jos. No one has been identified behind these two attacks, therefore no arrest have been made.

These sets of attacks demonstrate the affects that coinciding cleavages can have on a country. Coinciding cleavages are the bad types of cleavages which tear a country apart. There are many religious tensions seen in Nigeria between the Muslim population and the Christian population which result in flare ups and attacks which are seen here in these news stories. These types of incidences are keeping the Nigerian nation from moving forward in both the economic and political world. With set backs like these, one must wonder if the citizens in the country will ever come together as a nation and instead of having violent disputes over who is what religion, view each other as Nigerians, not muslim and Christian.