The death toll in weekend attacks in the central Nigerian state of Plateau has risen to 150, a local official said on Monday, in a region where clashes between herders and farmers are common.
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It is the worst outbreak of violence in Plateau since May, when more than 100 people were killed in farmer-herder attacks.
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AFP News Agency had cited the Nigerian army on Sunday as saying 16 people were killed in the latest attacks.
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The acting chairman of Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, Monday Kassah, said 113 people had been killed in the attacks on Saturday and Sunday.
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“The attacks were well coordinated. Not fewer than 20 different communities were attacked by the bandits,” he said.
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“We have recovered 113 dead bodies from those communities. We have recovered more than 300 injured.”
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Kassah did not say who was responsible for the attacks. He added that the injured had been taken to hospital.
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A Plateau police spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
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Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where inter-communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.
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The violence is often painted as ethno-religious conflict between Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers. But these attacks not the first in a Christian festival period gives more credence to the religious undertones.
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