JOS, March 17 (AFP) - Muslim herdsmen disguised as soldiers killed at least 11 people in an attack Wednesday on a Christian village in Nigeria, close to the site of a recent sectarian massacre, officials said.

Most of the victims of the raid on the village in the Riyom region of central Plateau state were women and children, state radio reported.

The police and government officials confirmed the incident.

"We received reports of an overnight attack on Riyom by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen. Our men are already there to assess the casuality and the situation," Plateau state police spokesman Lerama Mohammed told AFP.

A spokesman for the state government said that more than 10 people from the mainly Christian Berom clan had lost their lives in the attack.

"We heard of the attack on Riyom by some Fulanis. From what I have gathered, more than 10 people were killed," Dan Manjang told AFP.

Manjang, who hails from Riyom, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of the state capital Jos, said he was on going to the village to assess the situation.

Simon Wapmok, chairman of the local municaplity, was quoted as saying by state radio that he alerted the police and military authorities about the attack which took place at around 1:30 am, but that help came too late.

The attackers were said to be dressed in army camouflage, said the radio, putting the death toll at 11.

On March 7 herdsmen from the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group launched an overnight attack on three mainly Christian villages. Police say 109 people were killed in that attack although other officials put the figure at over 500.

Previous violence in and around Jos has claimed several thousand lives. The city lies on the dividing line between the Christian majority south and the mostly Muslim north.

There have been outbreaks of violence every few years since 2001, and some commentators attributed the March 7 slaughter to revenge for the killings of Muslims by Christians in January.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is divided almost in the middle between the two faiths.