ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen killed at least 20 people during an attack on a village in Nigeria’s north-central Benue state over the weekend, a local official said.
The attack took place on Sunday in the village of Aondona in the Gwer West area of the state, the local government chairman, Ormin Torsar Victor, said in a video on his Facebook page on Monday.
The graphic video showed what appeared to be three corpses on the ground, including a young child.
Benue state police spokesperson Anene Sewuese confirmed to The Associated Press that a weekend attack took place in Gwer West, but said only four people were killed, including a police officer who was responding to the raid.
Nigerian police authorities often provide lower death tolls than local authorities and witnesses when reporting on attacks.
While it remains unclear who was responsible for the killings, such attacks are common in Nigeria’s northern region where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water.
The farmers accuse the herders, mostly of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce. The herders insist that the lands are grazing routes that were first backed by law in 1965, five years after the country gained its independence.
The governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia, called the attack a “heinous act” and “a stark reminder of the pervasive violence and lawlessness” that have plagued the region in recent times in a statement on Sunday.
Last month, gunmen, believed to be herders, killed at least 40 people in north-central Nigeria.