Gunmen kill 23 in Nigeria's central region — Red Cross official

JOS, NIGERIA — Gunmen killed 23 people in four separate attacks in central Nigeria's Benue state, a Red Cross official said Sunday, the latest flare-up of unrest in the region.

 

The attacks happened Saturday night in four villages.

 

Clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farmers over land use are common in central Nigeria.

 

"Reports from the field have confirmed the killings of at least 23 people from different attacks," Red Cross secretary in Benue state Anthony Abah told AFP.

 

Eight people were killed in Ukum, nine in nearby Logo, three each in Guma and Kwande, he said, citing data from the organisation's field disaster officers. Several others were wounded, he added.

 

A police spokeswoman said she was unaware of the attacks. 

 

Cephas Kangeh, a retired general manager with a state electricity company who recently relocated to his home village near one of the affected areas told AFP he had heard of three killings, including a couple ambushed while riding a motorcycle which "was taken away by the herdsmen".

 

Chinese operators are mining gold in the area, he said.

 

"The attacks did not take place near the mining sites," said Kangeh.

 

"However, one is puzzled as to why indigenous people are always attacked, maimed... yet there has never been a single case of attack on the Chinese miners who are operating in these areas."

 

Some of the latest attacks were staged in areas previously targeted by attacks slightly over a month ago, which left at least 56 dead.

 

With many herders belonging to the Muslim Fulani ethnic group, and many farmers Christian, the attacks in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt often take on a religious or ethnic dimension. 

 

Two attacks by unidentified gunmen earlier in April in neighbouring Plateau state left more than 100 people dead.

 

Across the wider Middle Belt, including in Benue, land used by farmers and herders is coming under stress from climate change and human expansion, sparking deadly competition for increasingly limited space.