Nigerian President Bola Tinubu ordered security agencies to hunt down the perpetrators of a massacre in a key food-producing region that’s highlighted growing insecurity in the West African nation.
Unidentified assailants killed more than 100 people in an attack in the southeastern state of Benue that began on the night of June 13 and lasted several hours, with homes set on fire and people shot, according to the police. Thousands of people have died in a years-long conflict over access to land and water in Benue between nomadic herders and mostly sedentary farmers.
“How come no one has been arrested for committing this heinous crime,” Tinubu said Wednesday during a visit to the state. “The criminals must be arrested immediately.”
The attack in Benue deepens scrutiny of the Tinubu’s efforts to improve security in Nigeria, at a time when Islamist militants have ramped up an insurgency in the north of the country.
Almost 7 000 people have been killed in Benue since the government took power two years ago, Amnesty International said in a May 29 report, driving farmers off their land and stressing the nation’s already fragile food security.
Benue plays a key role in farm output in Africa’s most-populous country and is a vital producer of soybeans, cassava, mangoes and oranges, as well as yams and rice. The attack may bring more pressure to bear on Nigeria’s already-high annual food inflation, which rose 21% last month.
High food prices have fanned a cost-of-living crisis in Nigeria that sparked deadly protests last year in which at least 21 people died.
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