Gunmen have killed at least 52 people and displaced nearly 2,000 others over several days of attacks in Nigeria’s northern Plateau State, a region plagued by ongoing violence between farmers and cattle herders, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The reason behind the attacks, which took place across six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district last week, remains unclear, but the violence marks the worst outbreak since December 2023, when over 100 people were killed in the same area.
NEMA confirmed that the full extent of the violence became evident over the weekend, with 52 fatalities confirmed, while 22 others were hospitalized. The agency stated in a Sunday evening report that “gunmen carried out brutal assaults,” resulting in numerous deaths and widespread destruction of property.
“Over 1,820 individuals have been displaced. Three displacement camps have been established,” the agency said, adding that the security situation remained tense.
President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to hunt down the attackers, who would face “severe punishment”, the presidency said.
Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse states in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a region that has seen inter-communal conflict result in the loss of hundreds of lives in recent years.
While the violence is frequently framed as an ethno-religious conflict between Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farmers, other contributing factors are at play. Climate change and the shrinking of grazing land due to agricultural expansion are also significant drivers of the unrest in the region.
