At least 12 people were killed and three abducted after gunmen attacked a mining site in Nigeria’s Plateau state, local leaders said Wednesday.
The assault occurred late Tuesday in Atoso village, where armed attackers stormed the site, scattering workers amid gunfire and panic.
Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, head of the Berom Youth Moulders-Association, said locals identified the attackers as armed Fulani militias.
Five other victims were hospitalised with gunshot wounds, he said, as families searched anxiously for the missing.
Police spokesman Alfred Alabo confirmed that security agencies had launched investigations into the deadly attack.
The violence highlights deepening insecurity in Plateau, a volatile Middle Belt region scarred by recurring ethnic and religious conflict.
Farmer-herder clashes have long plagued the area, with cycles of revenge attacks persisting despite repeated government pledges to restore peace.
Mwantiri said the attack followed the killing of four children in a nearby village days earlier, warning authorities ignored early alerts.
The youth group urged the government to deploy more security forces, enforce an open-grazing ban, and rescue the abducted victims.