By Ardo Hazzad

Hundreds of women and youth barricaded the highway between Abuja, the capital, and Jos today to protest renewed violence between the groups, Ayuba said by phone from the city.
A family of four was killed in the predominately Christian district of Dabwak and 12 people died in an attack in the suburb of Babale, Ayuba said. On Sept. 3, unknown gunmen killed a family of eight in Jos, he said.
Nearly 70 people have been killed in Plateau state in less than two weeks in the latest violence between Christians and Muslims. Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous nation of about 140 million people, is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.

More than 14,000 people died in ethnic and religious clashes in the West African nation between 1999 and 2009, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.