Reports from north-eastern Nigeria claim that 110 people have been killed in attacks attributed to Islamist forces.
The attacks took place on Saturday in villages close to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, and involved farm workers harvesting rice. Some of the victims were bound up and had their throats slit. The attacks coincided with local elections in the state.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari commented: ‘The entire country has been wounded by these senseless killings.’
It is not clear who is responsible. While suspicion has fallen on Boko Haram, Bulama Bukarti of the Tony Blair Institute said that Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) ‘is the likely culprit’.
Both of these groups have harassed and attacked farmers, loggers and fishermen for supposedly collaborating with the government and security forces and for failing to pay taxes demanded of them.
Around 36 000 people have died as a result of the conflict since 2009.
[Picture: AK Rockefeller, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37784830]