More than 3,000 people have been displaced in central Nigeria after 85 people were killed in clashes between herders and farmers, officials said after violence erupted last week Monday of May 15, 2023, in several villages of Plateau State, an area which has struggled with ethnic and religious tension and violence for years.
AFP Jos: The crisis is just one of the many security challenges facing President-elect Bola Tinubu, who takes the helm of Africa’s most populous nation later this month.
It was unclear what triggered this week’s attacks in Mangu district but tit-for-tat killings between herders and farmers often spiral into village raids by heavily armed gangs.
“Eighty-five bodies (were) recovered,” the chairman of the local government council deputy minister Daniel told AFP.
Joseph Gwankat, a community leader from the local Mwaghavul Development Association, gave the same toll.
A search and rescue team “discovered 85 dead bodies,” he told AFP.
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.”
A lawmaker representing Mangu and neighbouring Bokkos in the house of representatives said however that there were still tensions in the area.
“There were gunshots up to about two hours ago. People are running for their lives,” Solomon Maren told AFP early afternoon on Thursday.
He said the violence was being perpetrated by “hundreds” of individuals who are not from the communities and are “armed to the teeth.”
“We have 17 communities that have been ravaged completely… So far over a 100 people are dead,” said Maren.
The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), which visited the area on Wednesday, described the situation as dire.
“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.”
