By Anna Borzello
BBC, Yelwa, central Nigeria
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Felled trees, branches and piles of junk metal lie across the road to Yelwa.
Muslims say the town was sealed off by Christian militias
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They were placed there last week by armed men who wanted to stop security agencies coming into
town and stopping the killings.
The closer we got to Yelwa, the more signs of destruction we saw.
Burned houses, and the twisted metal and shattered windows of cars, abandoned by the side of
the road.
The police said it was too dangerous for us to go into Yelwa's centre, and made us leave their
armed convoy and wait by a vandalised petrol station until they came back.
They drove off down the main street, through a milling crowd.
'Military uniforms'
But instead, people were desperate to talk to us.
Muslim men from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, immediately began to gather round to tell their
story.
They said that the attackers - armed with sophisticated weapons - surrounded Yelwa on Sunday and
launched a killing spree that lasted 24 hours.
Some of the militia - who came from four neighbouring Christian ethnic groups - were stripped
to the waist and painted black with charcoal.
Others, the eyewitnesses said, wore military and police uniform.
The attackers went from house to house looking for people to kill, looting property and burnings
building.
Three mosques in this predominantly Muslim town were destroyed.
'Mass grave'
It is still not clear how many people lost their lives, although it is likely to be far higher
than the official toll of 67.
One man said 550 dead, another 600 - but some of those may be simply missing as many people fled
during the attack.
Three mosques were burnt in the attack
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The men agreed, however, that 250 people had been buried the day before in a mass grave.
I asked why the police thought that it wouldn't be safe for us to drive around the town.
The reason was immediately clear.
The people of Yelwa feel that the security forces and local government have let them down.
They say that on 20 April the police withdrew from the town - and didn't come back until the
killing had stopped.
Earlier this week, when the local governor and state chief of police drove through Yelwa, men
lined the street chanting at them, and the officials were too frightened to get out of the car.
Revenge killings
The police say, in their defence, that sometimes it makes sense to tactically withdraw - and
that they weren't able to come in during the fighting because of all the roadblocks.
Army and police are now deployed in Yelwa.
And the president has set up a peace team to try and resolve the conflict - which is rooted in
a dispute over access to land between the Christian ethnic groups and the Muslim Hausa-Fulani.
But it is clear that the threat of ethnic and religious killing in the region has not gone away.
There has been heightened tension in the region, since the start of the year, and revenge killings
are common.
Earlier this year, Muslim Hausa-Fulani in Yelwa killed 49 Christians who had taken refuge in
a church.
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