Eighteen people were killed after nomadic herders opened fire on a market in the latest communal violence to rock central Nigeria's Benue state, a local official said Saturday.
The violence broke out late Thursday when herders stormed the village of Ukohol and shot 18 people in a market, including women and children, said Nathaniel Ikyur, spokesman for the state governor.
Disputes between cattle herders and farming settlements over land, grazing and water rights are common in central and northwest regions of Africa's most populous nation.
"The killing is the latest unprovoked attack by the Fulani herders who sneak in from neighbouring Nasarawa state where they operate camps in communities on the border with Benue," Ikyur said.
Dozens of villagers were injured in the attack and taken to hospital while hundreds of others fled, he added.
Tensions between communities can take on ethnic and religious dimensions in Nigeria, which has dozens of ethnic groups and is almost equally split between the mostly Christian south and predominantly Muslim north.
According to Ikyur, attacks by herders have intensified in recent months, sparking an exodus to towns further from the border where many people are already fleeing the worst floods in a decade.
