Gunmen kill 21 farmers in restive central Nigeria

JOS, NIGERIA:

Unidentified gunmen killed at least 21 farmers and wounded several others in a weekend attack in Nigeria's restive Plateau state, authorities and local residents told AFP on Monday.

Rural areas in Plateau, in central Nigeria, see recurring violence between mostly Christian farmers and semi-nomadic Muslim herders, often over dwindling land under pressure from climate change and expanding populations.

Weak policing and impunity for killings often spark indiscriminate reprisals along communal lines in the religiously mixed state.

Illegal mining and accusations of land grabbing are also known to add to tensions over land access.

Bokkos local government council chairman Amalau Samuel Amalau said the massacre occurred Sunday night in Kawel village.

"We are making arrangements for the burial," he told AFP.

Local resident Joseph Marren said the assailants entered the village, shooting randomly.

"I entered my house soon after I heard gunshots. I did not come out, but in the early hours of Monday, we saw some people already dead," he told AFP, confirming the toll of 21 dead.

"Some of my neighbours were victims of the attack, some have died, others have injuries," another resident, Amarudu John, said, giving a toll of "at least" 21.

Last year, Bokkos district saw a major attack that killed around 50 people.

A local government official at the time called the violence "ethnic and religious cleansing", blaming attackers "speaking the Fulani dialect".

An association for Fulani herders slammed the remarks.

Because the violence often falls across religious and ethnic lines -- with herders mostly Muslim, and farmers mostly Christian -- some have characterised the violence as a "genocide" or "persecution" against Christians.

Such rhetoric -- popular among the US and European religious right but disputed by experts -- was used by the White House last year when US President Donald Trump pressured Nigeria diplomatically over the country's violence.

Last week, the UN's special rapporteur on religious freedom said that impunity for armed groups was driving genocide claims in Nigeria, following a two-week tour of the country that included Plateau state.