Nigeria massacres see at least 160 people killed across tens of villages

The western, English language, press has this now, but is oh, so carefully tip-toeing round who is killing who and why. We know, and the readers of the Telegraph know that it is yet another theatre of jihad war; Muslims killing Christians. The Christian’s land, farms, cattle and chattles (which includes Christian women and children) are a bonus, but not necessarily the main motive. 

Armed groups have killed at least 160 people in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local government officials said on Monday. The attacks took place in Plateau state, a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions.

“As I am talking to you, in Mangu local government alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting not less than 100 corpses. I am yet to take stock of [the deaths in] Barkin Ladi,” Governer Caleb Mutfwang said. “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”

Military gangs, locally called “bandits”, launched “well-coordinated” attacks in “not fewer than 20 different communities” and torched houses, officials said.

Gunfire could still be heard on late Monday afternoon, according to a source from the region, which is on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and mainly Christian south.

Markus Amorudu, a resident of Mushu village, said people were sleeping when shots rang out. “We were scared because we weren’t expecting an attack. People hid, but the assailants captured many of us, some were killed, others wounded,” he told AFP.

Competition for natural resources between nomadic herders and farmers, intensified by rapid population growth and climate pressures, has also exacerbated social tensions and sparked violence.  Photograph from The Punch.

A jihadist conflict has raged in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing around two million, as Boko Haram battles for supremacy with rivals linked to the Islamic State group.  But both have in common a desire to subjugate the Christians and animists until they all submit to Islam. 

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday directed security agencies to scout for and apprehend culprits of the Christmas Day attacks in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State, which left at least 100 persons dead.

Condemning what he called a “primitive and heinous” attack, Tinubu said, “These envoys of death, pain, and sorrow will not escape justice.”

The PUNCH reports that over 100 persons were killed as armed men attacked 12 communities in Bokkos local government area, while over 17 others died in coordinated attacks on three communities in Barkin Ladi LGA, home to the Plateau State Polytechnic.