TEHRAN (Tasnim) Gunmen over the weekend killed 25 people in two attacks across north-central Nigerias Benue state, local authorities said Monday, the latest violence in a region known for deadly land disputes and reprisals.
- Other Media news -Attackers killed 14 people on Sunday in the community of Ankpali, said Adam Ochega, chairman of the Apa local government council, warning that there are still some threats here and there.
Ethnic Fulani nomadic herders have long clashed with settled farmersin Benue over access to land and resources.
In a recent report, Amnesty International tallied 6,896 people killed over the last two years in Benue, part of Nigerias so-called Middle Belt.
A police spokeswoman confirmed the attack but did not provide a toll.
In a similar attack Sunday evening on Naka village, of Gwer West local government area, 11 people were killed by what authorities said were suspected Fulani militias.
So far we have recovered 11 dead bodies and five people are confirmed injured,Gwer West council chairman Ormin Victor told AFP.
Last month, 44 people were killed in a span of four days in Gwer West.
Motives for the violence in that attack were not clear, but Victor blamed the coordinated attacks on Fulani cattle herders.
Herders across the region meanwhile say they are also the victims of deadly attacks by farmers, land grabs and cattle poisonings.
Land used by farmers and herders in central Nigeria is coming under stress from climate change and human expansion, sparking deadly competition for increasingly limited space.
Benue has been one of the states hit hardest by such violence between nomadic herders and farmers who blame herdsmen for destroying farmland with their cattle grazing.
When violence flares, weak policing all but guarantees indiscriminate reprisal attacks, which often occur across communal lines.
A spate of attacks across Benue and neighboring Plateau state left more than 150 people dead in April alone.
Land grabbing and political and economic tensions between local indigenes and those considered outsidershave heightened divisions in Plateau state in recent decades.
