Attacks in central Nigeria kill at least 20

JOS - Attacks in north-central Nigeria's Plateau state have killed at least 20 people this week, local government and humanitarian sources said Wednesday, in the region's latest flare-up of violence.

The three separate assaults across the Mangu local government area followed a series of attacks and reprisals that appear to have started while people were mining in the tin-rich region, local government council chairman Emmanuel Bala told AFP.

Muslim ethnic Fulani nomadic herders have long clashed with settled farmers in Plateau, many of whom are Christian, over access to land and resources.

Attacks in the region often fall across ethnic and religious lines, leading to indiscriminate sectarian reprisals.

"Sometime ago the natives were mining, they were attacked" with machetes, though no one died, Bala told AFP.

Following a series of retaliations and counter-retaliations, three attacks took place Monday and Tuesday, leaving at least 20 dead, Bala said.

Eight people were killed Tuesday night in the village of Chinchin by suspected Fulani assailants, Bala said.

That attack followed an assault Tuesday outside Langai town, where five people were killed.

On Monday, unknown attackers killed seven in Bwe district.

Fulanis in the area have also been harassed and attacked in recent days following deadly assaults blamed on people from their ethnic group, Bala said.

A Red Cross official confirmed the Chinchin toll and said the number of people killed across the 24-hour span could be as high as 21.

Land used by farmers and herders in central Nigeria is coming under stress from climate change and human expansion, sparking deadly competition for increasingly limited space.

Land grabbing, political and economic tensions between locals and those considered outsiders, as well as an influx of hardline Muslim and Christian preachers, have heightened divisions in recent decades.

When violence flares, weak policing can mean reprisal attacks follow which often occur across communal lines.

A spate of attacks across Plateau and neighbouring Benue state left more than 150 people dead in April alone.

While high-profile killings blamed on herders have shocked the country, herders across the region say they are also the victims of deadly attacks by farmers, land grabs and cattle poisonings.