The killers showed no mercy: They didn't spare women and children, or even a 4-day-old baby from their machetes.

At least 200 people, most of them Christians, were slaughtered March 7 in three villages south of the regional capital Jos, according to residents, aid groups and journalists. The local government gave a figure more than twice that amount, but offered no casualty list or other information to substantiate it.

The violence appeared to be reprisal attacks following unrest in January in Jos that left more than 300 dead, most of them Muslim.

Nigeria is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north and the predominantly Christian south. The recent bloodshed has been in central Nigeria, in towns along the country's religious fault line. It is Nigeria's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands.