The local administration announced on Thursday that the death toll from a bomb blast that killed a group of herders in central Nigeria has increased from 27 to 40.
The explosion on Wednesday happened in the community of Rukubi, which is on the border of the states of Nasarawa and Benue and is notorious for racial and religious conflict.
Governor of Nasarawa Abdullahi Sule told reporters on Thursday, “We currently have about 40 persons who were dead.”
Sule stated on Arise News television late Wednesday: “The rumor previously was that the air force carried out the bombing, but right now we realize that there was no air force plane that flew (over) the region.
Instead, a drone dropped the bomb above the target area, according to Sule, who did not identify the drone’s pilot.
An umbrella organization for herders claimed that a Nigerian military jet was to blame for the explosion.
Lawal Dano of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria said on Wednesday that he was demanding for a government probe because “we all know that the only people who have planes to do aerial operations are the military.”
A request for comment from AFP was not answered by the spokesman for the Nigerian air force.
racial tensions
The military has unintentionally killed civilians with airstrikes in the past in northern Nigeria, where soldiers are battling Islamists and criminal groups.
Officials said that at least nine civilians were killed in a mistaken airstrike by the Nigerian military on a village in Yobe state in September 2021.
According to the air force, a jihadist group had been being pursued nearby by a plane.
In the town of Rann, close to the Cameroonian border, a jet struck a camp housing people who had been displaced by terrorist warfare in January 2017, killing at least 112 people.
In a report released six months later, the Nigerian military attributed that bombardment on a “lack of sufficient labeling of the area.”
Herders and farmers have been fighting over pasture and water rights in central Nigeria for decades, but in recent years the violence has gotten worse after some herders joined gangs that assault towns.
The majority of herders in the dispute are Muslims, whereas the majority of farmers are Christians, adding to the conflict’s ethnic and religious aspects.
According to local authorities, nine people were killed last Thursday when suspected herders opened fire outside a camp for persons displaced by assaults close to Makurdi, the capital of Benue state.
Prior to the elections to replace President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general, security is a key concern in Nigeria.
