Nigeria: At least 160 dead, 300 wounded after attacks by armed gangs

Armed groups have killed at least 160 people in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local government officials said on Monday.

The toll marked a sharp rise from the initial figure reported by the army on Sunday evening of just 16 dead in a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions.

Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, told reporters that: “As many as 113 persons have been confirmed killed as Saturday hostilities persisted to early hours of Monday.”

Kassah explained: “Armed groups, locally called “bandits”, launched “well-coordinated” attacks in “not fewer than 20 different communities” and torched houses,” adding that “we found more than 300 wounded people, who were transferred to hospitals in Bokkos, Jos and Barkin Ladi.”

At least 50 people were also reported dead in several villages in the Barkin Ladi area, according to Dickson Chollom, a member of the state parliament.

Amnesty International criticised the government after the attacks, saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that “the Nigerian authorities have been failing to end frequent deadly attacks on rural communities of Plateau State”.

Conflict has raged in north-eastern Nigeria since 2009, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing around 2 million, as Boko Haram battles for supremacy with rivals linked to militant group.