No fewer than 40 persons have reportedly been killed by bandits in Zurak Kompani and Bandalala communities, Bashar District of Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Reports quoting some unnamed residents of the affected communities said the attack occurred on Monday night when residents were retiring from the day’s work.
The bandits, according to the residents, attacked the villages simultaneously. They set houses on fire, leading to pandemonium in which some of the residents were killed and others sustaining injuries.
Over thirty persons were reportedly killed in Kompani Zurak while another ten were killed in Bandalala with several others still missing.
Consequently, residents of the attacked communities have fled to neighbouring villages to seek refuge.
One of the residents of Wase town, Audu Ummah, reportedly said that some of the injured persons from the attacked communities are receiving treatment in various health centres, while other survivors have moved to Wase and other villages.
Security agencies were yet to comment on the attacks as of the time of this report.
The incident adds to the growing number of attacks in communities in the State, which has been plagued by incessant clashes.
Plateau, which lies on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim North and predominantly Christian South, is a flashpoint for intercommunal violence.
In December, several people were killed in raids on villages. Thousands of others were displaced in the attacks.
Clashes in Nigeria’s North-West and North-Central states have their roots in tensions over land between nomadic herders and pastoral farmers.
Competition for natural resources, intensified by rapid population growth and climate pressures, has spiraled into broader criminality.
Worried by the incessant attacks, the UN’s World Food Programme warned that conflict and insecurity, along with inflation and climate change, could sharply drive up hunger levels across the country.
