Adamu Sule, a 29-year-old motorcycle taxi rider, was one of thousands who ran for dear life when militia of the Tarok tribe invaded Dooshima II, a remote village of mud huts in central Nigeria.
Armed with rifles and machetes, the Tarok were in hot pursuit of retreating mercenaries of the rival Fulani tribe who had occupied his village days earlier, in an escalating ethnic conflict that has killed more than 350 people in three months.
``We just ran for our lives when we heard thecoming. There was no time for questions,'' said Sule, who returned to the village on Sunday to rebuild his charred, roofless huts.
More than 100 people were killed in a series of raids on Dooshima II and five other villages in Taraba state over a two-week period in mid-April, local residents and officials told Reuters on a trip to the remote area on Sunday.
``Nobody can tell you the exact number of people killed in the attacks. The truth is many people died, some while they were trying to escape, others because they were directly hit,'' said a police officer in the local market town of Ibi.
The conflict between the Tarok, a Christian tribe of farmers, and the Fulani, nomadic Muslim cattle herders, is rooted in competing claims over the fertile farmland of southern Plateau state in the heart of Africa's most populous nation.
Analysts say the feud has been fueled by irresponsible allocation of land by government, and growing lawlessness across Nigeria, which is the world's seventh largest oil exporter.
News of these attacks have only just emerged because Nigerian authorities routinely suppress information about ethnic killings in the belief that such reports spark reprisals.
The last three months have seen the bloodiest fighting in the region since the Plateau state capital, Jos, was torn apart by ethnic violence in 2001 that killed 1,000 people.
RETREATING FULANI
Village residents said the Fulani militia withdrew across the state border after fighting alongside their tribesmen against the Tarok in Plateau.
At least 250 people had already died in the fighting in Plateau, which has displaced at least 6,000 people across three states.
``About 1,000 Fulanis armed with very sophisticated weapons just arrived here one night and forcibly took over our homes. We could not fight them because they would have slaughtered everybody,'' said Mpuuga Emberga, a 35-year-old farmer.
More than 100 died in the fighting when the Tarok crossed the border into Taraba, including some of the invaders, said Japhet Mkaa, a son of the local chief.
The Red Cross said 24,800 people were displaced from the six villages originally, although the number had fallen to 5,500 by last week as people returned to their homes, family or friends.
Police and villagers said the attacks were purely tribal and had no religious undertones, adding that Christians, Muslims and animists were all victims of the marauding Tarok militia.
``Religion had nothing to do with it because theyjust killed anybody that they laid their hands on,'' said school teacher Samuel Igbua.
Residents said the presence of riot police had calmed fears of further attacks, although the atmosphere was still tense and corpses exposed to the elements filled the air in some areas with the stench of rotting flesh.
``We managed to bury some, but you can still find at least 14 corpses there,'' said 28-year-old Adamu Muazu, pointing to the arid bush outside Dooshima II.
Mwanger Aernan, a mother of 10, said she could not return to Yamer, one of the first villages to fall to the invaders, because it was still in the control of the Tarok and they were threatening to kill anybody who dared go back.
``We have lost everything,'' she said, nursing a newborn. ``My children and I have been sleeping under the open skies for weeks. Our biggest worry now is what will happen to us when the rains begin.''