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Anene Sewuese with Benue state police confirmed that assault and mentioned that the assailants had open hearth at a market. Nonetheless, Sewuese put the demise toll at eight individuals, together with a police officer.
The motive of the assaults was not instantly clear, although authorities mentioned they imagine each assaults had been linked. Whereas there was no declare of duty, authorities mentioned suspicion fell on native herdsmen, who’ve clashed up to now with farmers over land disputes in north-central Nigeria.
The farmers accuse the herders, largely of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce. The herders insist that the lands are grazing routes that had been first backed by regulation in 1965, 5 years after the nation gained its independence.
Benue state, which is known as ”Nigeria’s meals basket” due to its bountiful harvests, is likely one of the hardest hit within the decades-long clashes between agrarian communities and nomadic cattle herders throughout Nigeria’s northwest and central areas.
Agricultural yields from the state have decreased through the years due to these frequent clashes, additional squeezing households in a area the place many are poor and hungry.
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