In central Nigeria, a place notorious for interethnic and interreligious strife, a group of 27 herders were killed and a number of others were hurt on Wednesday, January 25 in what the police described as a ‘bomb explosion’.
A bomb went off in the middle of the herders and their cattle in Rukubi, a community near the boundary between the states of Nasarawa and Benue.
“We have established 27 people were killed in the bomb explosion along with several cattle,” said Maiyaki Muhammed Baba, Nasarawa’s police commissioner.
“Many other people were injured and the death toll could mount as searches are still going on,” Baba said, adding that police bomb experts were investigating the origin of the explosion.
An umbrella group representing herders said the bomb was dropped by a Nigerian military jet. “It was an airstrike. It killed 27 of our people,” said Lawal Dano of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria.
“We all know it is only the military that possesses jets to carry out aerial strikes, and we call for a thorough investigation and necessary sanction on whoever is behind this,” Dano said