Multiple attacks were carried out on villages in central Nigeria between Saturday and Tuesday, leaving nearly 200 people dead and at least 500 injured. The authorities are trying to clarify who is responsible and are calling on the population to calm down.
The death toll from attacks on villages in Plateau State in central Nigeria between Saturday evening, December 23, and Tuesday, December 26, morning rose to nearly 200 dead on Wednesday, at a time when casualties are beginning to be counted to bury, local authorities said.
Here's what we know about the attacks that took place during those three days that the Nigerian press dubbed “Black Christmas.”
Almost 200 dead
The identity of the attackers is currently unknown in this region, which has been plagued by religious and ethnic tensions for several years. The attacks occurred over the Christmas holidays.
Bokkos Governing Council Chairman Monday Kassah said he counted “148 Bokkos villagers massacred in cold blood” in his meeting with Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shittema, adding “at least 50 people killed” from four villages in neighboring Barkin district Ladi, said Dickson Chollom, an elected official of the local assembly, on Wednesday. The previous report showed 163 deaths.
“Don’t give in to divisions.”
“We ask you to resist the temptation to succumb to division or toxic hateful rhetoric towards your fellow citizens as we seek justice to ensure your safety,” Kashim Shittema told local authorities and displaced people on Wednesday.
“No fewer than 20 villages” were attacked between Saturday evening and Monday morning, Montagkassah told AFP on Tuesday, stressing that “the attacks were well coordinated”. There are currently “500 injured and thousands displaced,” he explained.
Victims “slaughtered like animals”
Numerous victims were buried on Tuesday. “150 people,” Timothy Nuwan, vice president of the Church of Christ in the Nations (COCIN), told AFP.
“There are many people who were killed in cold blood and slaughtered like animals, some were in their homes, some were even outside. Today we have about 150 (people, editor's note) buried throughout the area,” he explains.
The overwhelmed army
Major General Abdussalami E. Abubakar, who attended one of the burials at a mass grave in Maiyanga village in Bokkos, recalled the difficulties faced by security forces during the attacks.
“By 4 a.m. there were 36 different calls (on Christmas Eve). We were overwhelmed. And it could have been worse, much worse,” the major general told the villagers.
On Tuesday, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu ordered “security agencies to intervene immediately, search every inch of the area and arrest the perpetrators” after he “strongly condemned the attacks,” a presidential statement said.
Attacker not yet identified
Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang called for “joint efforts to identify and arrest those responsible for these heinous acts” in an official document the same day.
The population of Nigeria's northwest and central regions lives in fear of attacks by jihadist groups and criminal gangs who plunder villages and kill or kidnap their residents.
In this area, too, there has been fierce competition between breeders and farmers for years, with the latter accusing the former of plundering their land with their livestock.
Aggravated by climate change and the population explosion in this country of 215 million, sporadic violence has led to a serious security crisis, between attacks by heavily armed bandits and endless but also humanitarian reprisals between communities.
New Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who took office last May, has made combating insecurity one of the priorities of his term.