JOS
Attackers wielding guns and machetes killed at least two dozen people in central Nigeria’s Plateau state, survivors told media on Tuesday, the latest flare-up in a state plagued by recurring communal violence. Muslim ethnic Fulani nomadic herders have long clashed with settled farmers in Plateau, many of whom are Christian, over access to land and resources.
“We were sleeping, we heard some noises, some people in our neighborhood were screaming,” Mathew Joseph, of Bin-Per village, in Mangu local government area, told media of the Monday night attack. “I looked through the window and saw some armed men approaching our house. Before they arrived we managed to escape,” he said.
He said that 24 people had been killed, the same toll given by resident Muftwan Yamput, who said his neighbors were slain. “We survived by the whisker, but my neighbors were attacked, two people killed in their house,” he told media. Local Red Cross field officer Biplang Moses confirmed the incident without specifying a toll.
