JOS, NIGERIA — Gunmen killed 27 people in north-central Nigeria's Plateau state, in the latest bout of violence in the restive region, local sources told AFP on Tuesday.

 

Plateau and parts of Nigeria's Middle Belt region, has suffered deadly farmer-herder clashes over land and natural resources, as well as violence meted out armed criminals known as "bandits".

 

Resident Haggai Gankis told AFP the attackers stormed the settlement of Jebu-Rahoss, in the Riyom local government area, on Monday evening, armed with guns and machetes.

 

He blamed the attack on herdsmen. Another resident, Chuwang David, blamed bandits.

 

"We were asleep overnight, we heard gunshots, the attackers shot many many people and they also used machetes," David said.

 

Da Chomo Moses, another resident, gave the same toll and said he lost three family members "for no reason".

 

"Twenty-seven innocent people were shot dead," said Gankis, adding that most of the victims were women.

 

Ibrahim Babayo, Plateau state chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, condemned the assault and said: "No attack was carried out by our members."

 

Local government council chairman Sati Bature Shuwa confirmed the attack, but did not give a toll.

 

Residents said an unknown number of people were sent to the hospital.

 

- Sectarian angle -

 

For years, heavily armed bandit gangs have intensified their assaults in rural areas in northwest and central Nigeria.

 

At the same time, Plateau state has been riven by conflicts between herders and farmers over dwindling land and grazing space, exacerbated by population growth and climate change.

 

In the ethnically and religiously mixed state, farmers are mostly Christian while herders are ethnic Fulani Muslims, giving the clashes a sectarian dimension.

 

Land grabs, political and economic tensions between locals and those considered outsiders have heightened divisions in recent decades, as has an influx of hardline Muslim and Christian preachers.

 

A spate of particularly deadly attacks on farmers this year has residents warning the assaults are becoming increasingly frequent, better planned and more organised.

 

Attacks across Plateau and neighbouring Benue state left more than 150 people dead in April alone.

 

While high-profile killings blamed on herders have shocked the country, herders across the region say they are also the victims of deadly attacks, land grabs and cattle poisonings by farmers.

 

Much of the violence in Plateau occurs in areas with little police or government presence, giving criminals a sense of impunity as killings almost always go unsolved, researchers say.

 

Reprisals are often disproportionate and fall across communal lines.