Nigeria mosque massacre not sectarian violence: military

The Nigerian army has said an armed assault on a mosque in which 21 people died was the result of a criminal feud and not sectarian violence.

The attack on Sunday was the bloodiest in a day of violence which also saw the restive north-eastern city of Maiduguri rocked by a roadside blast and two separate gun attacks that killed at least four people including a local chief, according to residents and the military.

The army and locals said the pre-dawn raid on the mosque in the village of Dogon Dawa, in the northern state of Kaduna, was carried out by armed robbers engaged in a running feud with a local vigilante group.

Having been repelled by the community militia last week, the gang returned on Sunday, storming the mosque as people prepared for early morning prayers, killing some victims inside the building and some outside.

“We have 21 killed. Several others have been taken to the hospital with injuries,” said Musa Illela of the National Emergency Management Agency in Kaduna.

Suicide bombings at three churches in June, claimed by Islamist group Boko Haram, had sparked reprisal violence by Christian mobs who killed dozens of their Muslim neighbours and burned some of their victims’ bodies. Muslim groups also formed mobs and killed several Christians.