At least 22 people were killed in an attack attributed to an armed militia targeting a convoy of Muslim pilgrims in Nigeria’s central Plateau state, Nigerian police said.
Police spokesman Oba Ogaba said that “a group of suspected Irigoi youths”, a predominantly Christian ethnicity, “attacked a convoy of five buses carrying Muslim pilgrims, killing 22 people and wounding 14 others.”
The police confirmed that 6 suspects had been arrested, and that 21 people had been rescued.
For his part, a representative of the authorities in the state reported that 25 people had been killed, after checking on the wounded in the hospital.
In turn, a local official indicated that “25 bodies were prepared to be buried,” explaining that “Irigoy militia fighters launched their attack using batons, knives and stones to kill the victims.”
Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong denounced the attack in a statement, stressing that “security has been strengthened in the area.”
