At least 20 people were killed and others were injured by gunfire in an attack carried out by armed assailants today on two villages in the state of Plateau, located in central Nigeria, where violence has been escalating between cattle herders and local farmers.

Alfred Alabo, the spokesperson for Plateau State Police, stated that the attacks occurred when unidentified armed militants attacked two villages, killing 20 people.

He mentioned that a number of individuals sustained varying degrees of gunshot injuries in the attacks, promising the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators.

Killing has exacerbated in these areas due to bloody conflicts at times between nomadic cattle herders and local farmers over grazing and water rights, that then took on ethnic and religious dimensions.

Source: Qatar News Agency