Gunmen attacked a camp for internally displaced people in central Nigeria on Tuesday, killing seven people and injuring nine others, said the governor of that state.
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The attack took place at dawn on this camp sheltering nearly 21,000 people who fled their villages following previous clashes between herders and farmers.
"
Seven people died in the attack
" and many wounded were taken to hospital, Benue Governor Samuel Ortom said on Tuesday while visiting this camp on the outskirts of Makurdi, the capital of the country. State.
Benue State is located in the Middle Belt region, shaken for years by deadly clashes between nomadic herders and local farmers, over land issues and rivalries for the control of pasture and water. The attack, probably perpetrated by Fulani shepherds, was "
inhuman, barbaric and unacceptable
", denounced the governor who appealed to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to act as quickly as possible: "
we are being severely tested. . Our patience and our preaching in favor of the rule of law are strained, people have had enough
”.
The reasons for the latest attack are not exactly known, but tensions have been on the rise in the region since the government enacted a law there banning open grazing by cattle.
In the past two weeks, more than 70 people have been killed in different parts of the state, according to the governor.
These conflicts around the earth constitute an additional challenge for the country's security forces who are fighting on several fronts: a jihadist insurgency that has lasted for more than ten years in the North-East, gangs of kidnappers in the North-West. and a separatist militia in the South East.
