Nigerian authorities are scrambling to avert a full-fledged sectarian war in Plateau State after mob violence claimed the lives of 31 on Aug. 14 and 15. On the morning of Aug. 14 five minibuses conveying more than 60 Muslim worshippers were attacked by a Christian mob and bludgeoned, killing 22, on the outskirts of Jos, the state capital. Mob violence in apparent reprisal killed at least nine more people, believed to be Christians, on Aug. 15. Emotions on both sides of the religious divide have been strained for weeks in the aftermath of massacres of Christian residents in rural areas near Jos with no apparent intervention by the military from July 31 to Aug. 2. The attackers were armed Muslim militia that burned villages and murdered any residents that couldn’t flee. Governor Simon Lalong on Aug. 17 summoned religious and ethnic leaders in Plateau State for talks over the tensions …