This week, officials and police in the Nigerian state of Benue reported that at least 74 people were killed. They died in two separate attacks by assailants. In a region where violence between pastoralists and farmers is routine, these were the most recent conflicts to occur.
As the population increases, more land must be devoted to cultivation. Leaving less space for open grazing by nomads’ cattle herds. This has led to an increase in violence over the past few years.
Catherine Anene, a spokesperson for the Benue state police, stated that 28 bodies were discovered overnight between Friday and Saturday in an IDP camp in the Mgban local government.
It is unclear what precipitated the incident, but witnesses say assailants arrived and opened fire. They killed scores of people.
Bako Eje, chairman for Otukpo, said that in a separate incident in the same state on Wednesday. Suspected herdsmen massacred residents during a burial in the remote Umogidi hamlet of the Otukpo local government area.
Paul Hemba, the security advisor to the governor of Benue state. Reported on Thursday that 46 bodies had been discovered following the attack on Wednesday.
In a statement issued on Saturday, President Muhammadu Buhari condemned “the latest round of killings in Benue State in which dozens of people were slaughtered in Umogidi town” and ordered the deployment of additional security patrols in the region.
As a result of being overburdened and insufficient, Nigeria’s security personnel are occasionally tardy to rural assault scenes.
Benue is a state in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where the Muslim North and Christian South of the country converge.
In the Middle Belt, where ethnic and religious divisions frequently intersect with fault lines between farmers and herdsmen, the competition over land use is particularly intractable.
Saturday, residents of the state of Zamfara, a hotbed for kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs targeting remote regions, reported that at least 80 individuals had been abducted by gunmen.
