Bandits killed 36 people and destroyed buildings in a night raid on a village near the central Nigerian city of Jos, officials said, in an area hit by repeated ethnic clashes.
The cause of much of the tension is poverty which increases competition for resources and jobs and, in the Middle Belt, worsens a complex inter-section of ethnic and religious rivalries.
The bandits went from house to house killing residents in Yelwa Zangam late on Tuesday, a military spokesman said. Troops struggled to get to the area as a bridge had been destroyed, he added.
Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong described the attack as a “barbaric act”, and said security forces had arrested 10 suspects and were pursuing others.
He said he was restoring a 24-hour curfew on the surrounding area to prevent further loss of life and property. Authorities had only recently relaxed a curfew imposed after bandits killed 22 commuters in the same area on Aug 14.
The Hausa-Fulani, who number tens of millions across Nigeria and are mostly Muslim, are seen as a threat by some of the smaller Middle Belt groups, who are mostly Christian.
One of the eye witness said the bandits were Fulanis from a nearby area involved in a feud with the Yelwa Zangam community.
A registrar at a hospital in Jos confirmed to Reuters that 36 bodies had been brought in from the village.
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