DOGO NAHAWA, Nigeria— The attackers came at night and surrounded this small farming village, firing shots in the air to scare residents from their homes. Men, women and children were hacked with machetes as they rushed out. Several houses were set on fire with residents still inside.

Details are beginning to emerge from attacks Sunday on four villages in central Nigeria, where witnesses say members of the predominantly Muslim Fulani ethnic group targeted villages that were home to members of the mostly Christian Berom ethnic group. On Monday, local officials counted 378 bodies in the villages of Dogo Nahawa, Rasat, Zot and Shen.

The dead, in a freshly dug mass grave, included a pregnant woman and at least one infant. A few miles away in Jos, a city of a half-million at the crossroads of Nigeria’s Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, troops patrolled the outskirts and set up checkpoints. There was a light police presence in Dogo Nahawa.

“I was sleeping at night next to my husband when I heard shooting,” said villager Nomi Dung, 38 years old, her eyes red. “My husband told us to run, but I said, ‘No I will not run—even if I die, let me die in my home.’ My husband ran, and entered into the [attackers'] hands. My children ran outside because they were afraid from the shooting.”

Ms. Dung could not finish. A relative said her three children, ages 8, 5 and 3, had been killed.

The latest violence compounds the political uncertainties in Africa’s most-populous nation. With sub-Saharan Africa’s largest Muslim population, Nigeria has largely avoided extremist ideology. But the threat of a deepening religious divide adds to security problems and a leadership vacuum that have prompted worries that one of the world’s largest oil-producers could be careening out of control.

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By WILL CONNORS

LAGOS, Nigeria — The Vatican’s invitation to Anglicans could have far-reaching repercussions across Africa, where about half of the world’s 80 million Anglicans now live.

African clergymen have been some of the harshest critics of their Anglican colleagues in the West, whom they accuse of liberally interpreting the Bible. But it’s far from clear whether churches here, many of which have already distanced themselves from Anglican churches in the U.S., Canada and England, would see the need to embrace the Vatican’s offer.

Unlike the more tightly controlled Catholic Church, Anglican churches in Africa are largely autonomous, operating with a level of freedom that they wouldn’t likely enjoy under Rome’s fold.

Archbishop Peter Akinola, head of the Church of Nigeria, and the spiritual leader of Africa’s 40 million Anglicans, is “still weighing the implications of the Vatican’s offer” and is consulting with colleagues, according to an aide reached by telephone Wednesday.

Still, the Vatican’s offer may appeal to many who follow Africa’s conservative strain of Anglicanism. African church leaders have adopted an especially tough line on homosexuality, a cultural taboo across the continent. In many countries, homosexuality is illegal and associated with Satanism. Nigeria, home to 18 million Anglicans, recently beefed up its anti-sodomy law to include prison sentences for men who live together and for those who “aid and abet” gays.

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As Death Toll Passes 800, Questions Raised About Whether Group, Boko Haram, Poses Broader Threat

By WILL CONNORS

LAGOS, Nigeria — A week of brutal violence in northern Nigeria has spurred questions over whether an obscure homegrown religious fundamentalist group represents a broader threat to national security in Africa’s most populous nation.

More than 800 people were killed last week during fighting between an Islamic fundamentalist group calling itself Boko Haram, and Nigerian security forces. The clashes spread across several northern states.

A Red Cross worker in the northern city of Maiduguri, where most of the fighting occurred, said that 780 bodies had been collected in the past few days, and that at least 3,600 Maiduguri residents had been displaced. Officials in Bauchi, where the violence began, had earlier confirmed more than 50 deaths.

Rights groups say many civilians were among those killed, though exact figures remain unknown. Police say most of the dead were militants.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in sectarian violence in Nigeria since 1999, often in the so-called Middle Belt, where the predominantly Muslim north meets the Christian south.

But Boko Haram’s targeting of its own government, attacking police stations and other official buildings, surprised many observers. Some northern Nigerians, who were aware of previous incidents involving the group, say the government should have seen this coming.

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ABUJA, Nigeria — An Islamic fundamentalist group in northern Nigeria expanded its attacks into three additional states on Monday, a day after at least 50 people died during fighting between the group and security forces in Bauchi State, aid workers and police said.

On Monday, fundamentalist group Boko Haram, which means “education is prohibited” in Hausa, launched attacks in three northern states, where at least 100 bodies were counted by a reporter in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, the BBC reported. Casualty figures couldn’t be confirmed.

Fighting was also reported in Kano and Yobe states. Police spokesmen didn’t respond Monday to requests for information.

Boko Haram on Sunday attacked a police station in the northern city of Bauchi after several of the group’s leaders were arrested last week. Police responded to Sunday’s attacks by converging on several of the group’s hideouts, killing at least 50 members and arresting more than 100, police spokesmen said.

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By WILL CONNORS

ABUJA, Nigeria — At least 100 suspects have been arrested following clashes Sunday in northern Nigeria between security forces and armed Islamic fundamentalists that left dozens dead, according to news reports and a police spokesman.

Exact casualty figures weren’t known. Police reported that all the dead were militants.

“A group of religious fundamentalists who believe that anything related to Western education is completely prohibited attacked a police station in Bauchi this morning,” Bauchi police spokesman Mohamed Barau told The Wall Street Journal.

He said the attackers used bows and arrows, locally made grenades, guns, knives and sticks. Security forces tracked the men to a residence and “upon arriving there the men opened fire, and the police, in self-defense, returned fire and shot some of them,” Mr. Barau said.

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Part 3 of 5 of my series for Slate

LAGOS, Nigeria—Leo Igwe is a lonely man. In this overwhelmingly religious country, he is a rare creature. Leo is a proud, “out,” practicing atheist.

This is no small feat in a country where people answer the question, “How are you?” with, “I thank God.” Leo’s outspokenness has made him well-known but largely disliked in his home town on the northern outskirts of Lagos. It has also put his life in danger.

“I get death threats all the time,” Leo told me when I first met him several months ago. “What can I do? I believe what I believe.”

Death threats over religious matters are taken seriously in Nigeria, a country with a long and troubled history of religious violence. Particularly in the country’s “middle belt,” between its predominantly Muslim north and mostly Christian south, religious violence is easily triggered and dangerously volatile.

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