Twelve people in a Christian village in Central Nigeria were killed Wednesday morning by attackers with machetes who set fire to homes and fired gunshots into the air.

Among the death are seven women, four children and one man, the Associated Press reported citing Mark Lipdo, a member of a regional Christian nonprofit group. The attackers reportedly cut the tongues off the victims, AP noted.

The killings are believed to be carried out by Muslims, a witness who heard them speaking in Fulani said, the Associated Press reports.

A similar massacre occured last week in another Christian village near the city of Jos where hundreds were killed. The country is divided between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

More than 13,500 people have died in religious or ethnic clashes in Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999, according to Human Rights Watch.

Nigeria