Gunmen attacked remote villages over the weekend in north-central Nigeria's Plateau state, killing at least 140 people, officials and survivors said Tuesday, the latest case this year of such mass killings blamed on the farmer-herder crisis in the West African nation.
The assailants targeted 17 communities in "senseless and unprovoked" attacks on Saturday and Sunday, burning down most houses in the area, Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang said in a broadcast on the local Channels Television.