(Adds state governor, Red Cross official, resident) By Tume Ahemba LAGOS, Feb 21 (Reuters) - At least four people were killed and churches and mosques set ablaze in a suburb of the eastern Nigerian city of Bauchi on Saturday, close to where clashes between religious gangs killed hundreds of people last November. Residents said the security forces moved swiftly to quell the violence, which was contained in the city's Dutsin-Tashin neighbourhood, and that it appeared to have been brought under control. It was not immediately clear what triggered the unrest. "The security agencies have been directed to deal decisively with the perpetrators of this mayhem," Bauchi state governor Isa Yuguda said in a statement on local television and radio. Adamu Abubakar, head of the Nigerian Red Cross in Bauchi, said four people had been killed and 28 seriously wounded and hospitalised in the unrest. "The military have been drafted in now and everything is coming back to normal," Bauchi resident Abdullahi Kwarbai said. Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs provoked by a disputed election killed hundreds of people in Jos, capital of neighbouring Plateau state, in November, the worst unrest in Africa's most populous nation for several years. RED ALERT A spokesman for the governor of Plateau state said the security forces there were on red alert. "We want to forestall any eventuality here," Dan Manjang said by telephone, but added that the situation was calm. Nigeria is roughly equally split between Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people's faith. More than 200 distinct ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side in the West African country, although civil war left one million people dead between 1967 and 1970 and there have been bouts of religious unrest since then. Last year's violence in Jos, which lies at the crossroads of the Muslim north and Christian south, was triggered by a local election but was rooted in decades-old rivalry between mostly Christian indigenes and Hausa-speaking settlers from the north. The hostility had more to do with competition for control of fertile farmlands and access to economic opportunities, such as the right to own a market stall or go to university, than with arguments about religious belief. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Additional reporting by Ardo Hazzad in Katsina; Writing by Nick Tattersall)
