At least Forty-six bodies have been found after gunmen attacked a rural village in northern-central Nigeria, local government officials said. The attack happened on Wednesday in the Umogidi community in Benue state, where tit-for-tat clashes are common between nomadic herders and settled farmers competing for land and resources.
Paul Hemba, a security adviser to the Benue state governor, said on Friday that, The 46 casualties were from the bodies of victims found and retrieved. Many people are still missing, so number of those killed may be higher.
Hemba blamed herdsmen who he said had been attacking local communities over the last month. He added that, Soldiers have been dispatched to the area, so the situation is a bit calm now.
The motive for the attack was not clear but Benue has been one of the states hardest hit by clashes between farmers and herders who they accuse of destroying farmland with their cattle grazing.
A representative of the national herders’ association was not immediately available for comment.
Bala Ejeh, the local government chair of the town of Otukpo in Benue, said the gunmen attacked on Wednesday afternoon when people were mourning three others killed a day earlier. He said 46 bodies had been recovered so far, including his own son and two relatives.
Communal violence is just one of the security challenges facing the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, who won a presidential ballot last month that was marked by heavy delays and accusations of vote rigging.
Security forces are also battling a 14-year-long jihadist conflict in the country’s north-west and attacks by separatists in the south-east.
Intercommunal violence has spiralled into broader criminality in the north-west and centre of tNigeria, where heavily armed bandit militias ransack villages and carry out mass abductions for ransom.
AFP
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