JOS, Nigeria: Gunmen killed 13 people, including nine children, in a raid on a village in central Nigeria yesterday, an official said, the latest violence to hit a region wracked by years of sectarian conflict.
“The attack took place around 1am (0000 GMT) and 13 people were killed in their sleep” in Rapyem village, said Habila Dung, administrator of the Barkin Ladi local government area in Plateau state. He described the raid as “barbaric” and said nine children were among the dead.
Plateau falls in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, on the dividing line between the mainly Christian south and predominantly Muslim north.
Mostly Muslim herdsmen from the Fulani-Hausa ethnic group have been blamed for scores of attacks on mainly Christian agriculturalists from the Berom ethnic community. Fulani leaders say the Berom politicians who control the state have systemically suppressed the rights of herdsmen, denying them access to desperately needed grazing land. AFP
