Christians and Muslims fighting. A familiar story. Or is it?

Nigeria, Guinea and, this week, Liberia–in towns in northwestern Lofa County.

The Daily Observer reports:

Information coming in to the Daily Observer from Lofa County indicates that it all began on Tuesday when a 14-year-old girl of the Mandingo ethnic group was found dead near a mosque in Kornia, a town 55 miles from Voinjama (capital of Lofa) on the Voinjama/Zorzor/Salayea highway.

At least one report noted that the girl’s body was discovered with “body parts extracted.”

From that point, according to reports, a retribution cycle began with Christian torching a mosque in Kornia and Muslims destroying churches in Voinjama.

The Liberian National Police and peacekeepers have moved in to restore some order. A fact complicated by the largely Muslim composition of the Pakistani peacekeeping force.

Liberia is not a place fuming with religious tension. At least based on my experiences there. The civil war split the country along tribal lines–in some cases, these splits corresponded to religious divisions. LURD and ULIMO-K were widely seen as Mandingo/Muslim forces, though whatever politics they espoused were distinctly secular.

Kornia, where this week’s violence began, was the site of fighting in 2001. Taylor’s Anti-Terrorist Unit retook the town from LURD and allegedly executed  more than a dozen people.

All of this fighting displaced thousands of locals. They have returned slowly since Taylor left power. Many returnees have found their familial land occupied by someone else–often, from a different tribe. Land is not only power in Liberia, as Taylor noted before the Special Court, but it also bread. Lofa is seen as the nation’s breadbasket.

It should be noted the young woman, according to the Observer, disappeared after leaving to dig for cassava.