51 People Killed In Armed Group Attack On Nigerian Plateau

JAKARTA - 51 people were killed by armed groups in the early hours of Monday in the state of Plateau, northern Nigeria. The attack comes two weeks after deadly clashes in other parts of the state that killed dozens of people.

Last week, the national emergency response agency said armed groups killed 52 people and displaced nearly 2.000 others during a few days of attacks on the Plateau, which has a history of violence between farmers and cattle herders.

On Monday, April 14, residents said 51 bodies were found in the villages of Zikke and Kimakpa in Bassa district, Plateau, while several others were reported injured.

The cause of the attack is not yet known.

"The mass cemetery is ongoing. There is outrage in the region at this time," said resident Joseph Chudu Yonkpa.

"No community deserves such trauma, bloodshed and destruction," said Albert Garba Samuel, spokesman for the local youth group Jere Nation Youth's Development Association.

Amnesty International Nigeria said the gunmen also destroyed and looted houses.

"Unforgivable security weakness that allowed this horrific attack, two weeks after the 52-person killing, must be investigated," Amnesty said in a statement.

Plateau is one of several ethnic and religiously diverse inland states known as the Nigerian Middle Belt, where inter-community conflicts have claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.

The violence is often described as an ethaneligious conflict between Muslim herders and farmers who are mostly Christians.

However, climate change and reduced grazing land through agricultural expansion are also the main factors.