[Note the death toll has since risen to 160, as this Jihad Watch article explains.]
The Associated Press has reported that at least 140 people were killed by gunmen over two days in remote villages in Nigeria’s Plateau state, where the assailants targeted 17 communities in unprovoked attacks and most of the houses in the area were burned down, which the Governor of the area Caleb Mutfwang explained in a broadcast on local television.
Mutfwan said, “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.. It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”
Amnesty International Nigeria’s office told the Associated Press that it has so far confirmed 140 deaths in the Christian-dominated Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi areas based on data compiled by its workers on the ground and from local officials, though locals fear a higher death toll with some people unaccounted for.
(Another report explains that an official of the Bokkos Local Government said that the attacks started occurring on Saturday and continued into when the residents were celebrating Christmas Eve.)
Some of the locals said that it took more than 12 hours before security agencies responded to their call for help. Sunday Dawum, a youth leader in Bokkos said, “I called security but they never came. The ambush started 6 in the evening but security reached our place by 7 in the morning.” At least 27 people were killed in his village including his brother, he said.
The AP report says, “No group took responsibility for the attacks though the blame fell on herders from the Fulani tribe, who have been accused of carrying out such mass killings across the northwest and central regions …” (However note that as is typical for such media outlets, the report did not mention the fact that the Fulani are Muslims, which is the most significant aspect of the issue being spoken about.)
Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi told the AP that the Nigerian government haven’t taken any “tangible action” to protect lives and ensure justice for victims in the conflict-hit northern region, saying, “Sometimes they claim to make arrests but there is no proof they have done so … The brazen failure of the authorities to protect the people of Nigeria is gradually becoming the ‘norm.’”