At least 113 people were killed in a series of attacks over the weekend in Plateau state in central Nigeria, a local official said on Monday, in a region where clashes between herders and farmers are common.
It is the worst outbreak of violence on the plateau since May, when more than a hundred people were killed in attacks between farmers and herders.
On Sunday, the AFP news agency quoted the Nigerian army as saying that sixteen people had been killed in the latest attacks.
The acting chairman of Bokkos Local Government Area in Plateau State, Monday Kassah, said 113 people were killed in the attacks on Saturday and Sunday.
“The attacks were well coordinated. About twenty different communities were attacked by bandits,” he explained. “We have recovered 113 bodies from these communities. “We have recovered more than 300 injured people.”
Kassah did not say who was responsible for the attacks, adding that the injured were taken to hospital. A police spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Plateau is one of Nigeria’s ethnically and religiously diverse landlocked states, where inter-ethnic conflicts have claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.
The violence is often depicted as an ethno-religious conflict between Muslim pastoralists and predominantly Christian farmers. But climate change and the expansion of agriculture are also important factors. (Reuters).
Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
