AFP: Gunmen have killed 14 people, including an army commander, during an attack in north central Nigeria in the latest deadly violence in the area, officials said on Thursday. The attack happened on Tuesday in the Apa area, Benue State, where tit-for-tat clashes are common between nomadic herders and settled farmers competing for grazing, farm land and water.
Paul Hemba, security adviser to Benue State government, told AFP around 10 people had been killed in Apa and troops had been sent to secure the area.
Soldiers were also ambushed by the bandits, a name used locally for criminal gangs who rustle cattle, raid villages and carry out mass kidnappings for ransom in northwest and central Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, the guard commander of the troops paid a supreme price as they were ambushed by the bandits and he was killed,” Hemba said.
“One soldier is still missing as we speak now, he has not been found.”
Benue police said a total of 14 bodies had been recovered from the Apa attack.
Earlier this month nearly 50 people were killed when gunmen attacked another village in Benue, in violence local officials blamed on ethnic Fulani herdsman.
The motive for that attack was not clear but Benue has been among the hardest hit by intercommunal clashes between farmers and Fulani herders accused of destroying farmland with their cattle grazing.
After that attack, the Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), a union of Fulani herders, warned against blaming herders without proper investigation.
But Benue Governor Samuel Ortom has been one of the harshest critics of Fulani herders and has been strictly enforcing a ban on open cattle grazing.
Communal violence is just one security challenge facing President-elect Bola Tinubu who won a February presidential ballot marred by opposition accusations of vote rigging.
Security forces are also battling a 14-year-long jihadist conflict in the northeast and attacks by separatists in the southeast.
