At least 74 people were killed in two separate attacks by gunmen this week in Benue state, local officials and police said on Saturday, the latest clashes in an area where violence between pastoralists and farmers is common.
Violence has risen in recent years as population growth leads to an increase in farming land, leaving less land available for open grazing by nomads’ cattle herds.
Between Friday evening and Saturday morning, 28 bodies were recovered at a camp for internally displaced people in Mgban local government area, according to Benue state police spokesperson Catherine Anene.
It was unclear what sparked the attack, but witnesses said gunmen arrived and began shooting, killing several people.
This came after a separate incident in the same state on Wednesday in the remote Umogidi village of Otukpo local government area, where suspected herdsmen killed villagers at a funeral, according to Bako Eje, the chairman of Otukpo.
According to Paul Hemba, the governor of Benue state’s security adviser, 46 bodies were recovered following Wednesday’s attack.
In a statement issued on Saturday, President Muhammadu Buhari condemned “the recent spate of killings in Benue State in which tens of people were killed in the Umogidi community” and directed security forces to increase surveillance in affected areas.
Many such attacks in remote parts of Nigeria go unreported because security forces are frequently overburdened and respond late to community distress calls.
Benue is a Middle Belt state in Nigeria, where the majority Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south.
Land use competition is especially vexing in the Middle Belt, where fault lines between farmers and herders frequently intersect with ethnic and religious divisions.
Chronicle NG reported that bandits abducted at 80 people in Zamfara state, northwest Nigeria most of them children between the ages of 12 and 17.
