(Abuja) Gunmen attacked isolated villages over the weekend in Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state, killing at least 140 people, officials and survivors said Tuesday. It is the latest case this year of massacres of this type attributed to the crisis of farmers and herders in the West African country.
The attackers targeted 17 communities in “senseless and unprovoked” attacks on Saturday and Sunday, burning down most of the houses in the area, Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang said in a program on Channels Television.
“As I speak to you, in Mangu local governorate alone, we have buried 15 people. Since this morning, in Bokkos, there have been no fewer than 100 bodies. I have not yet taken stock of (the deaths of) Barkin Ladi, said Mr. Mutfwan. This has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in the Plateau. »
Amnesty International’s office in Nigeria told the Associated Press (AP) that it has so far confirmed 140 deaths in the predominantly Christian areas of Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi in the Plateau region on based on data compiled by its field employees and local authorities. The death toll could be higher as some people remained missing.
Some residents said it took more than 12 hours before security agencies responded to their call for help, a claim the AP could not independently verify but which echoes past concerns about the slow response to Nigeria’s deadly security crisis, which has killed hundreds of people this year, notably in Plateau.
“I called security, but they never came. The ambush started at 6 p.m., but security arrived at our house at 7 a.m.,” said Sunday Dawum, a youth leader from Bokkos. At least 27 people were killed in his village, Mbom Mbaru, including his brother, he said.
No group has taken responsibility for the attacks, but herders from the Fulani tribe have been accused of carrying out such massacres in the northwest and central regions, where the decades-long conflict over Access to land and water has further deepened the sectarian divide between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria’s military said it had launched “mop-up operations” in search of suspects, with help from other security agencies, although arrests are rare in such attacks.
Abdullsalam Abubakar, who commands the army’s special intervention operation in Plateau and neighboring states, said his forces “will not rest” until they find those responsible.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected this year after promising to tackle security problems that his predecessor had failed to eradicate, tasked security agencies to “scan every part of the area and “apprehend the culprits,” according to a statement from his office.
He also ordered the “immediate mobilization of relief resources” for survivors and rapid medical treatment for the injured, the statement added.
Amnesty Nigeria Director Isa Sanusi says President Tinubu’s government and others have failed to take “concrete steps” to protect lives and ensure justice for victims in the affected northern region by conflict.
“Sometimes they claim to make arrests, but there is no proof that they did,” he said. The blatant inability of the authorities to protect the Nigerian population is gradually becoming the norm. »