At least 40 people were killed and 50 others injured as herdsmen attacked an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Benue state.
Sources said that the herdsmen broke into a primary school harbouring the IDPs located in Nyiev Ward, Guma Local Government Area, on Friday night.
It was gathered that most of the victims of the attack, which was carried out by suspected Fulani assailants who immediately fled the scene of the incident, were women and children.
No fewer than 50 people, who were seriously wounded by the assailants, were evacuated to hospitals in Makurdi for immediate medical attention.
“They arrived from different sides of the community and started killing people in the camp.
“They even chased some people who ran out of the camp to the road and killed them there,” an eyewitness told newsmen.
The IDPs were those who had fled their villages to the camps following previous attacks that gripped the largely agrarian Benue State.
Periscope International reports that the latest attack came about a month after the suspected herdsmen attacked the same local government area and killed about 15 villagers.
The state has endured attacks from killer herdsmen over the past six years amid disputes over available lands for farming and grazing.
Gov Samuel Ortom’s administration had in 2017 signed a law that prohibited open grazing across the state, saying it would also curtail the movement of potential attackers.
He had explained that the policy would engender a reduction in the frequency of the carnage by the killer pastoralists, many of whom remained largely unknown.
The police command in Benue State has confirmed the incident but declined to provide further details, while the state government had yet to officially react to the incident as of the time of filing this report.
