The toll from a sequence of assaults on villages in central Nigeria has soared to nearly 200, local authorities disclosed on Wednesday, as survivors commenced the solemn task of laying the deceased to rest.
Armed groups launched a spate of attacks from Saturday evening through Tuesday morning in Plateau State, Nigeria, an area long beleaguered by religious and ethnic strife.
Earlier estimates from authorities had pegged the death count at 163.
During a meeting with Nigeria’s vice president on Wednesday, Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, revealed that 148 villagers from Bokkos had lost their lives in the attacks.
Additionally, Dickson Chollom, a member of the state parliament, reported at least 50 casualties across several villages in the Barkin Ladi area.
Concerns persist that the death toll might escalate further as some individuals remain unaccounted for, as expressed by Kassah to media on Tuesday. He further noted that 500 people had sustained injuries while thousands were displaced.
A significant number of those who perished were interred on Tuesday, with Timothy Nuwan, the vice president of the Church of Christ in Nations, indicating a figure of 150.
Nigerian Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday decried the attacks and ordered “security agencies to immediately move in, scour every stretch of the zone, and apprehend the culprits”.
The northwest and central regions of Nigeria have long been plagued by bandit militias operating from remote forest bases, perpetrating raids on villages for looting and abducting residents for ransom.
Tensions fueled by competition for natural resources between nomadic herders and farmers, exacerbated by rapid population growth and climate-induced pressures, have further ignited social discord and triggered instances of violence.
