Power broker and devout Christian Chief Solomon Lar is on a crusade against Islamic "invaders" he says are sweeping down through central Nigeria, killing his people and forcing them off their fertile lands. Lar is one of many politicians embroiled in a battle for dominance over Nigeria's "Middle Belt", an ethnically diverse central area on the cusp of the Muslim-dominated north and Christian south. Conflict has simmered throughout Lar's home state of Plateau since street fighting in the state capital Jos killed hundreds in 2001. It culminated this May in a massacre of hundreds of Muslims by Christian Tarok militiamen in the town of Yelwa.
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