A US-based rights group has urged Nigeria's vice-president to order an immediate criminal investigation into "a massacre of at least 150 Muslim residents" of a town in central Nigeria. In a statement, Corinne Dufka, Human Rights Watch's (HRW) senior West Africa researcher, said the killings in Kuru Karama, 30km south of the city of Jos, required "the authorities to act now". "Something extremely serious has happened in the town ... act now both to bring those behind these heinous crimes to justice and to protect both the survivors and those at risk of renewed violence," Dufka said. "Vice-president [Goodluck] Jonathan's statement that the perpetrators will be prosecuted is a start. But now he needs to make sure the police conduct an immediate and impartial investigation." The three main mosques of the town were burned and destroyed as well, according to HRW. And one witness told HRW that at least one police officer participated in the attack, while another said the police abandoned their post shortly before the violence began, adding that the killings took place throughout the day, without police intervention to stop the violence, despite repeated calls to the police.
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