A rocket fired at a Muslim school in Jos, the Plateau State capital on Tuesday killed a boy aged about 10, a military spokesman said.
Salisu Mustapha said the rocket had missed the main school building and the boy who was killed was walking on a road nearby and was not a pupil there.
“An Islamic school was the target of the attack,” said Pam Ayuba, the spokesman for the governor of Plateau State.
Mr Ayuba said he was at the scene with military and police, who all confirmed that one young person died, explaining that the victim was not a student at the school, but a bystander.
Witnesses described a man dressed in red firing what appeared to be a rocket launcher at the school in the Bukuru area of Jos. Initial reports had suggested a local government building was the target.
Islamist sect Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 65 people on July 7 in Plateau and for the assassination of two more people – a Senator and a member of Plateau State House of Assembly – at a funeral for the casualties the following day.
But security forces blame much of the violence on migrant Fulani herdsmen who have been clashing with members of the Berom communities. The two groups have been fighting over who has a right to fertile farmlands in Plateau.
The military Special Task Force (STF) said this week it will clear out many of the villages affected by the violence this month to restore calm, but Fulani groups say this is a deliberate
