Horror violence erupted in Nigeria over the Christmas weekend, when dozens of people in 17 remote villages were attacked by gunmen.
The murder spree happened in the north-central Nigerian Plateau state and left at least 140 people killed, according to data compiled by the local office of NGO Amnesty International, through knowledge of its workers on the ground and local officials.
However, as many people are still unaccounted for, it is feared the death toll could further rise.
The villagers were targeted between Saturday and Sunday, with the murderers burning down most houses in what the area’s governor called “senseless and unprovoked” attacks.
The Plateau Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, in a televised message on the local Channels Television: “As I am talking to you, in Mangu local governorate alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting not less than 100 corpses.
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“I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi. It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”
Some of the survivors in the the Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi areas, where mainly Christians live, claimed they had to wait for several hours before security agencies responded to their pleas.
Sunday Dawum, a youth leader in Bokkos who lost his brother during an attack in his village called Mbom Mbaru, said, as reported by AP: “I called security but they never came. The ambush started six in the evening but security reached our place by seven in the morning.”
As mass burials have already begun, no group has yet taken responsibility for the horrifying attacks. However, reports are placing the blame on the Fulani tribe, which has been accused of carrying out similar mass killings across northwest and central Nigeria in the past.
The Fula people are primarily of Muslim religion, and can be found mostly in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and Niger.
The area where the villages devastated by the Christmas weekend violence were is interested by a decades-long conflict over access to land and water, worsened by the continuous shrinking of Lake Chad.
This conflict has spiked the division between Christians and Muslims in the African country.
The Nigerian Army said to have begun “clearance operations” as they hunt down suspects.
The Nigerian President elected in May after pledging to tackle security challenges, Bola Tinubu, ordered security agencies to “scour every stretch” of the area and capture the murderers.
A statement from his office also read the president has ordered “immediate mobilisation of relief resources” for the survivors and medical treatment for the wounded.