At least 113 people died in attacks by armed groups between Saturday night and Monday in several villages in Plateau Statein the center of Nigerialocal authorities announced on Monday.
“The hostilities that began on Saturday continued on Monday morning,” Kassah, president of the governing council of Bokkos, a constituency located in this region plagued by conflicts, told AFP on Monday. religious and ethnic tensions for several years.
More than 300 people injured
“At least 113 bodies have been found,” he added, while the toll reported on Sunday afternoon by the army was 16 dead.
AND “more than 300 people” were injured and were taken to hospitals in Bokkos, Jos and Barkin Ladi, Kassah said Monday.
“No less than 20 villages” attacked
Armed groups, described locally as “bandits”, They attacked “no less than 20 towns” between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning, he stated, stressing that “The attacks were well coordinated“.
The latter began in the Bokkos district and then spread to the neighboring Barkin Ladi district, where “30 dead were found,” according to Danjuma Dakil, its president. On Sunday, Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang called the “barbaric, brutal and unjustified” armed action. “The government will take proactive measures to curb the ongoing attacks on innocent citizens,” said Gyang Bere, the governor’s spokesman.
Jihadists and criminals
According to a local source, gunshots could still be heard on Sunday afternoon.
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International Amnesty reacted to this violence on his X account, estimating that “the Nigerian authorities have always failed in their attempts to put an end to these Frequent attacks in Plateau State“.
People in the northwestern and central regions of Nigeria live in terror of attacks by jihadist groups and criminal gangs that loot villages and kill or kidnap their inhabitants.