Nigeria's top Muslim leader said on Wednesday that 300 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Sunday's attacks by Christian militia in the town of Yelwa in the central Plateau state.
Justice Abdulkadir Orire, secretary general of the Jama'atu Nasril Islam, described the killings in the remote farming town as "genocide" and said they took the death toll from three months of ethnic violence to at least 700 people.
The information we have is that 300 people died and they are mostly Muslims. We call it a genocide because they are killing women and children," he said.
Mr Orire said the Christian militia of the Tarok tribe used machine guns in the attacks and criticised the Plateau state governor for apparently inciting violence.
"It seems the governor is supporting the move. We heard that the government said non-indigenes should move out of the area," he said.
"That is very bad. He should look after everyone in the state and not just his own tribe."
The conflict between the Christian Tarok and Muslim Fulani is rooted in competing claims over the fertile farmlands at the heart of Africa's most populous nation, and it is fuelled by religious and ethnic differences between the groups.