Deadly raids in Nigeria spark UN alarm

• At least 200 people were killed in central Nigeria.
• Long-standing religious and ethnic tensions fueled the violence.
• The Nigerian president prioritizes combating insecurity.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in a series of raids on villages in central Nigeria, according to local authorities, and the UN human rights commissioner expressed his “deep alarm” over these killings on Thursday.

In Nigeria’s Plateau State, an area beset by religious and ethnic strife for several years, armed groups initiated attacks between Saturday night and Tuesday morning.

The area marks the border between the predominantly Christian south and the Muslim north of Nigeria.

“I am deeply alarmed by the series of attacks by gunmen on multiple rural communities in Plateau State,” said Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement.

“I call on the Nigerian authorities to investigate this incident promptly, thoroughly, and independently, consistent with international human rights law, and to hold those responsible to account in fair trials.

“The cycle of impunity fueling recurrent violence must be urgently broken. The government should also take meaningful steps to address the underlying root causes and to ensure non-recurrence of this devastating violence.”

Bandit groups that operate from camps deep in forests and raid towns to plunder and kidnap citizens for ransom have long terrified Northwest and Central Nigeria.

Intensified by climate challenges and high population growth, the competition for natural resources between farmers and nomadic herders has also provoked violence and exacerbated social tensions.

Since 2009, a jihadist insurgency between opposing groups affiliated with the Daesh group and Boko Haram has raged in northeastern Nigeria, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of approximately two million people.

Since taking office in May, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has prioritized combating insecurity in order to attract foreign investment in the most populous nation in Africa.

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