Lagos, Apr 6 (EFE).- An attack by an armed group in central Nigeria has claimed the lives of at least 25 people, a community leader told EFE on Saturday.
The attack took place on Thursday in Kogi state.
Elias Atabor, a leader of the Agojeju-Odo community, in the town of Omala, where the massacre occurred, said a group of attackers stormed into the town, opening fire indiscriminately.
“So far, we have buried 25 people whose lives were cut short by the attackers. Many people were injured and, as we speak, many remain unaccounted for,” Atabor lamented.
“There is fear everywhere. People fear that the attacks will return,” he said, highlighting that the community has suffered many such assaults in recent times and needed “protection” from the authorities.
Atabor blamed the attacks on “bandits,” a term used in the country to name criminal gangs that commit massive assaults and kidnappings to demand large ransoms.
However, villager Bashir Bello described the incident as acts of retaliation by nomadic herders after clashes with neighbors that occurred in recent days.
“There were disagreements between our people and the Fulani herders last week, which resulted in small clashes,” Bello told EFE.
“The herdsmen returned to retaliate after attacks on some of them (…) We have buried more than 20 people,” he said.
Kogi lies in the area dividing Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and its mostly Christian south and has endured ethnic and religious tensions for years.
Clashes are common between communities of farmers, mostly Christian, and herders of the Fulani people, mainly Muslim, in the region due to differences in the use of the land and the scarce natural resources.
The insecurity is further exacerbated by persistent bandit attacks in several states of the country, particularly in the central and northwest regions.
These attacks, carried out by the bandits, persist despite repeated promises from the Nigerian government to quell the violence.
The government has reinforced the deployment of its security forces in response to these ongoing threats.
Similarly, the northeast region of the country has been plagued by violence perpetrated by the group Boko Haram since 2009.
Additionally, since 2016, the region has also experienced attacks from its splinter group, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). EFE
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