Gunmen have killed over 140 people in a series of attacks in northern Nigeria’s Plateau state.
Surging violence over two days targeted remote villages in the state, in what officials and survivors have described as the latest mass killings this year due to Nigeria’s farmer-herder crisis. The attacks have further fueled sectarian tensions in the area, which has seen years of violence between predominantly Christian farmers and semi-nomadic Muslim herders, over grazing and farming rights.
Seventeen communities were targeted, with most homes burnt down during the “senseless and unprovoked” attacks, the Plateau state governor, Caleb Mutfwang, said in a broadcast on the local Channels Television. “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau,” he added. He confirmed a death toll of 15 in Mangu local government and over 100 in Bokkos. However, the exact death toll in Barkin Ladi is yet to be determined.
Amnesty International Nigeria’s office, however, confirmed 140 deaths in the Christian-dominated Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi local government areas of Plateau. They compiled the data from workers on the ground and local officials, but locals fear a higher death toll due to some people who remained unaccounted for.
Many locals said that security agencies reportedly took more than 12 hours to respond to calls for help. The slow response echoes concerns raised before about hampered interventions to Nigeria‘s deadly security challenges, which have killed hundreds this year, including in Plateau.
“I called security, but they never came. The ambush started at 6 in the evening, but security reached our place by 7 in the morning,” said Sunday Dawum, a youth leader in Bokkos. At least 27 people were killed in his village, Mbom Mbaru, including his brother, he said.