GUNMAN RAID CENTRAL NIGERIAN VILLAGE AND KILL 30 PEOPLE

CENTRAL NIGERIA

Gunmen have killed 30 people in a village in central Nigeria, according to a local official.


Gunmen stormed the majority-Berom Shonong village in the Riyom local government area in the early hours of Monday, opening fire on residents and torching dozens of houses, a member of the state house of assembly Daniel Dem told Reuters.

A spokesman for the local military confirmed the attack, but said it was too early to give a death toll.

Violence in central Nigeria is frequently fuelled by long-running land disputes between semi-nomadic communities like the Muslim Fulani and farming settlers including mainly Christian Berom, both often armed with automatic weapons.

Thousands have been killed in the last three years in tit-for-tat clashes between rival ethnic groups in the middle belt, where the largely Christian south meets the mostly Muslim north in Africa's most populous nation.

Such battles, far from economic centres or oilfields in Africa's second-biggest economy and top oil producer, are largely ignored by central government, human rights groups say.