Clashes between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups in central Nigeria Thursday caused “enormous” destruction, with a number of people dead and houses burned, a military officer said. “Lives have been lost, houses have been burned,” Captain Charles Ekeocha said, adding that exact details were not known “but the loss is enormous.” The clashes appeared to result from reprisals carried out for violence that had occurred over the previous weekend. Plateau state lies in the so-called middle belt region between the mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south of Africa’s most populous nation..