Nigeria senator killed at mass burial after ethnic clash

JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian senator and several others were killed on Sunday when gunmen attacked a mass burial for 63 victims of violence the previous day in volatile, ethnically mixed Plateau state, a government official said.

Saturday's clashes between security forces and armed Fulani herdsmen erupted after the military said they intervened when fighting broke out between Fulani migrants and indigenous tribes in the Barkin Ladi district in Plateau.

A spokesman for the Fulani said the military opened fire on them because the government favours indigenous tribes.

The Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed several suicide bomb attacks this year on churches in Jos, the Plateau capital, prompting a Christian backlash against Muslims. There was no sign Boko Haram was involved in this weekend's fighting.

Plateau is in the "Middle Belt", where the largely Christian south meets the mostly Muslim north. It has for years been a tinderbox of ethnic and religious rivalries over fertile land and power between local people and migrants from other areas.

Senator Gyang Dantong of the ruling People's Democratic Parthy and a state lawmaker were among those shot dead while attending the burial of victims of Saturday's clashes. Burials were also under way in other parts of the state and the final death toll is likely to be higher.

"Tragedy. Serving Senator died following Fulani attack on mourners at a mass burial of 63 victims of a Fulani attack on over 9 villages the previous day," said Istifanus Gyang, security adviser to the Plateau state governor.

Tit-for-tat killings between religious and ethnic groups have run on for several days in Plateau in the past. In January 2010, more than 300 people were killed and in November 2008 over 700 were killed in a week of fighting.

Security experts believe Boko Haram's attacks on churches in central and northern Nigeria are an attempt to provoke a wider religious conflict inside Africa's biggest oil producer.

But much of the violence in Jos is a result of long-running ethnic tensions and local political power struggles, and is not instigated by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has killed hundreds this year in its insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government. The sect wants to carve out an Islamic state in the north of Africa's most populous nation. (Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Tim Pearce)