Thousands of Nigerian Muslims fled the town of Yelwa today after an attack by Christian militia killed hundreds of their townsfolk on Sunday.
Dirty and exhausted, the refugees sought police escorts to take them to neighboring Bauchi and Nassarawa states fearing that Christians in surrounding villages would try to kill them as they left, a Red Cross worker said.
"Thousands of displaced people have crossed into Bauchi from Yelwa and the surrounding area," said Mr Umar Mairiga, who led a Red Cross team to the area on Thursday.
"They are using police escorts to take them out of the area completely because militant Christians have mounted roadblocks on the roads," he added.
The origin of the conflict between the Christian Tarok and the Muslim Fulani is rooted in their competing claims over the fertile farmlands of Plateau state in central Nigeria.
But it has been stoked by religious hatred and the sense among the Christian population that Muslims are outsiders in Plateau.
Survivors of the Yelwa massacre said they had buried 630 corpses in several mass graves around the remote market town after Sunday's attack. It was not possible to confirm the figure independently, but a senior policeman spoke of "hundreds" dead.