Armed bandits, suspected to be herders, killed 7 people and injured several others in an attack on 3 communities in Nigeria’s Benue state, locals said.
The suspected herdsmen heavily armed stormed Mchia, Arufu and Chembe villages – settlements in Logo local government area – on Sunday.
A local leader in the area, Joseph Anawa, said that the killing at Mchia took place in the morning and that some corpses have been recovered while some persons are still missing.
Anawa added that the second attack took place at night between Arufu and Chembe villages, adding that the bandits shot at a commercial vehicle heading to Iorza where the passengers suffered various degrees of injuries and are now at a hospital in Anyiin.
The Council leader, Adagbe Jonathan, confirming the attacks to journalists in Makurdi, the state capital, said that seven bodies have so far been recovered from bushes by locals and the police.
He said that the attacks took place at 9pm on Sunday, adding that five corpses were recovered same night while the remaining two were found on Monday morning.
State police spokesperson Sewuese Anene was yet to respond to calls and a text message put through her telephone.
Hundreds killed in central Nigeria’s header-farmer crisis
Hundreds of people have been killed in central Nigeria since last year, in attacks the government attributes to bandits – a loose term for gangs of outlaws carrying out robberies and kidnappings. Also, farmer-herder crises had killed and displaced thousands in the region.
Benue state governor Samuel Ortom last year stated that at least 5,000 people have been killed after 200 attacks in Nigeria’s Benue state following the armed invasion of rural areas within the past 11 years.
“The road to this historic occasion has been paved by existential challenges. As you are sadly aware, over 5,000 of our people have painfully lost their lives to mindless attacks by rampaging herdsmen between 2011 and June 2022,” he said.
“It is horrifying to note that Benue State has suffered within the same period well over 200 attacks with property worth over N500 billion destroyed. It was these unending, unprovoked and coordinated attacks on our farming communities that eventually forced us to call for help.
“Thus, when we cried out, it was because our people and our land were under a deliberate assault. And as much as we exercised self-restraint by not taking up arms against the relentless invaders, we couldn’t at the same time refuse to draw attention to our pitiable plight,” the governor said.