26 dec 2023 om 00:13
Armed groups have killed at least 160 people in a series of attacks on villages in a central region of Nigeria. This is evident from statements by two spokespersons for the Nigerian government and the Red Cross on Monday.
The Nigerian army had previously spoken of sixteen deaths in the area, which has been plagued by religious and ethnic tensions for years. The violence is mainly due to differences between Muslim herders and Christian farmers.
A spokesperson for the local government in Bokkos said that 113 people had been killed in the region around that town. Bokkos is located about 200 kilometers east of the Nigerian capital Abuja. He said the deaths occurred during armed clashes that started on Saturday and continued into the early hours of Monday.
Gangs are said to have carried out “well-coordinated” attacks in “no fewer than twenty different communities”. More than three hundred injured people were also found in the area. They have been transferred to hospitals in Bokkos, the government spokesperson said.
According to a preliminary count by the local Red Cross, 104 deaths have been reported in eighteen villages in the Bokkos region. At least fifty people have also been killed in several villages in the Barkin Ladi region, according to Dickson Chollom, a member of the state parliament.
Image: AFP
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2023-12-25 23:13:33
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