Armed groups kill scores of villagers in Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state in the long-running conflict between nomadic herders and farmers.

At least 140 people were killed and others are missing after a series of attacks by gunmen on remote villages in north-central Nigeria’s Plateau state.

Officials and survivors confirmed the Christmas Eve attacks and blamed the killings on the farmer-herder crisis in the West African nation.

They said the military gangs, locally called “bandits,” launched “well-coordinated” attacks in “not fewer than 20 different communities” and torched houses on Saturday and Sunday. Gunfire was still heard on Monday morning.

A terrifying Christmas

Plateau Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, said that in Mangu local governorate alone, 15 people were buried on Monday, and authorities in Bokkos had counted not less than 100 corpses.

“I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi,” Mutfwan said, adding, “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”

More than 300 wounded people have reportedly been taken to hospitals.

Amnesty International’s Nigeria office told The Associated Press that it has so far confirmed 140 deaths in the Christian-majority Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi areas of Plateau, based on data compiled by its workers on the ground and from local officials.

There are fears of a higher death toll as some people remain unaccounted for.

Criminality, climate change, social tensions ……………..