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Most of those facing charges are Muslims from the Fulani group, police spokesman Mohammed Lerama told the BBC. The number of those arrested since the killings near the city of Jos has risen to 200, he said. Police say 109 people - thought to be mostly Christians - died in Sunday's bloodshed. Earlier reports put the toll at more than 500.
The violence followed sectarian killings near Jos in January that left more than 300 dead, most of them believed to be Muslims. Plateau State, in central Nigeria, sits between the mainly Christian south and the predominantly Muslim north.
Although the violence takes place largely between Muslims and Christians, analysts say the underlying causes are economic and political. A survivor in the village of Dogo Nahawa, near the city of Jos, told the BBC he heard his neighbours scream as they were attacked. "I went to my neighbour's house. I saw all the wives, they killed them, cut their bodies, put fire on them. And the babies. They killed all the children," Pepi said.
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Gabriel, the community leader, said his five-year-old granddaughter had been hacked to death with a machete by Fulani-speaking men who had started shooting a heavy machine gun to scare the residents into the open. "The shooting was so heavy that people were afraid. People were running helter skelter because... they had never heard something like this before. [They] ran into them, and they were machete-ed."
Officials say police and troops are patrolling the area to prevent further trouble.
Chief of police for Plateau State Ikechukwu Aduba said on Wednesday he had asked for extra help. "Our urgent patrol efforts after the incident... have yielded good results," he said. "We have requested reinforcements, and have been reassured... that reinforcement is on its way."













