BREITBART
At least 140 people were killed by gunmen who attacked remote villages over two days in north-central Nigeria’s Plateau state, survivors and officials said Tuesday in the latest of such mass killings this year blamed on the West African nation’s farmer-herder crisis.
“As I am talking to you, in Mangu local government alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting not less than 100 corpses. I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi,” Gov. Mutfwan said. “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”
Some of the locals said that it took more than 12 hours before security agencies responded to their call for help, a claim the AP couldn’t independently verify, but which echoes past concerns about slow interventions in Nigeria‘s deadly security crisis, which has killed hundreds this year, including in Plateau.
“I called security but they never came. The ambush started 6 in the evening but security reached our place by 7 in the morning,” said Sunday Dawum, a youth leader in Bokkos. At least 27 people were killed in his village, Mbom Mbaru, including his brother, he said.
The Nigerian army said it has begun “clearance operations” in search of the suspects, with the help of other security agencies, although arrests are rare in such attacks.
“We will not rest until we bring all those culpable for these dastardly acts to book,” said Abdullsalam Abubakar, who commands the army’s special intervention operation in Plateau and neighboring states.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected this year after promising to help tackle the security challenges that his predecessor failed to address, has yet to make any public comments about the latest attacks days after they happened.
