Toll in Nigeria clashes rises to 85 – officials

The death toll rose to 85 from clashes between herders and farmers in central Nigeria that also displaced thousands of villagers, local officials said Thursday.

The clashes broke out Monday in Plateau State that straddles the divide between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and mainly Christian south, and which has struggled with ethnic and religious violence for years.

Thirty people were previously reported to have died. It was unclear what prompted the violence, but tit-for-tat killings between herders and farmers often spiral into village raids by heavily armed gangs.

ALSO READ: Gunmen kill nearly 50 in north central Nigeria

“Eighty-five bodies (were) recovered,” the chairman of the local government council Daput Minister Daniel told AFP in Mangu district.

He said some people had been wounded, without giving a number, while “several houses have been destroyed and many people are now displaced.”

‘Thousands’ displaced

Joseph Gwankat, a community leader from the local Mwaghavul Development Association, confirmed the toll of 85 to AFP.

Gwankat said that 57 people were injured in the attacks and were being treated in hospital. There was no other confirmation of that figure.

The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), which visited the area on Wednesday, said that “thousands of people” were displaced by the attacks. 

ALSO READ: Gunmen attack village, kill dozens in northwest Nigeria

“We could see houses that were still burning,” Juni Bala, director of search and rescue at SEMA, told AFP. “We couldn’t go further because (the) youth were angry.”

“The situation on the ground is very bad. Children and women by (the) thousands were moving on the road,” he said. “They need shelter, food, beddings, non-food items.”

– Suspects arrested –

Police said that five people had been arrested in connection with the violence. 

“Heavy security presence has been deployed,” police spokesman Alfred Alabo said. “So far calm has been restored to the general area.”

The Nigerian branch of rights group Amnesty International condemned the violence.

“These deplorable attacks took place at a time when the affected farming communities in Mangu were cultivating their farms and demonstrate complete disregard for human life,” Amnesty Nigeria tweeted.

ALSO READ: Gunmen kill nearly 50 in north central Nigeria

“The Nigerian authorities must do more to protect the people and bring the actual perpetrators of these attacks to justice.”

In April, nearly 50 people were killed when gunmen attacked a village in neighbouring Benue State, in violence local officials blamed on herdsmen.

Benue has been among the hardest hit by clashes between farmers and herders who are accused of destroying farmland with their cattle grazing. 

Nigeria security challenges

Nigerian President-elect Bola Tinubu, who takes the helm of Africa’s most populous nation later this month, is facing multiple security challenges.

The military is battling a 14-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast, separatist tensions in the southeast, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, and kidnappings by armed criminals across the country.

ALSO READ: Legal challenge opens against Nigeria election result

Violence has been on the rise in the last few weeks after a brief calm period during the February presidential and March state elections. 

On Tuesday, a US convoy carrying local staff and accompanied by police officers was attacked by gunmen in southeast Nigeria’s Anambra State, killing at least four of the travellers.