VIDEO. Attacks on villages in Nigeria kill 198 people

Dozens of bodies are buried next to each other. While some mourn the dead, others rush to put their belongings on the roofs of cars to leave the village. Either out of fear or because their home was destroyed or burned down.

At least 198 people were killed in attacks by armed groups in central Nigeria between Saturday 23 December and Monday 25 December, according to the latest government report. “I ran and then they shot me. I started begging them, and then they shot me again. I played dead,” said a young man who survived one of the coordinated attacks on villages in Plateau State, who described the attackers as members of the Fulani community.

But for Governor Caleb Mutfwang, who describes the surprise attack as “barbaric, brutal and unjustified,” this is no longer just an ethnic or religious conflict or a conflict between plant breeders and farmers, but rather a crime on a large scale.

In addition to numerous casualties, more than 300 wounded were taken to hospitals, and several people were missing.

People in Nigeria’s northwestern and central regions live in fear of attacks by jihadist groups and criminal gangs who are looting villages, kidnapping and killing their inhabitants.

Nigeria’s new president, Bola Tinubu, who took office in May 2023, has said he is making tackling insecurity a “priority” of his mandate.