Violent Clash Between Farmers And Herders Leaves At Least 70 Dead In Nigeria

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari expressed regret over the reported killings of dozens people in Plateau State on Sunday and vowed that his administration would not rest until the murderers are apprehended.

"The grievous loss of lives & property arising from the killings in Plateau today is painful and regrettable," Buhari wrote from his official Twitter account. "My deepest condolences to the affected communities. We will not rest until all murderers and criminal elements and their sponsors are incapacitated and brought to justice."

The deadly clash Sunday morning between Christian farmers and Muslim herders left at least 70 people dead and 50 homes burned to the ground, according to Reuters.

Buhari also appealed for calm and said he supported Governor Simon Bako Lalong and the institution of a curfew throughout the region.

"The government has enforced a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in order to bring normalcy, (and) police and other security operatives have been put on alert at the moment," Plateau State's Commissioner of Information Yakubu Dati told Reuters.

The restrictions are in effect indefinitely and affect the communities of Jos South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi.

Nigeria's Middle Belt region has been the center of escalating conflict between farming communities and pastoralist herders predominantly belonging to the Fulani ethnic minority group - the same group as Buhari.

Violence between the two groups has become so explosive that a report by the International Crisis Group found the death toll in 2016 of approximately 2,500 people, had made the conflict as dangerous as the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast. "A survey of open source reports suggests fatalities may have reached an annual average of more than 2,000 from 2011 to 2016, for some years exceeding the toll from the Boko Haram insurgency," the report said.

Agence France-Presse reported that following the bloody attacks on Sunday a group of "ethnic Berom youths set up barricades on the Jos-Abuja highway and attacked motorists who looked 'Fulani and Muslim'," according to people who had escaped the attack.

The newspaper notes the latest bloody fight comes on the heels of clashes on Friday between Fulani herders and ethnic Bhama farmers in Adamawa state in northeast part of the country.

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