Several thousand Christians rallied in the north central Nigerian city of Jos on Monday to protest over insecurity after nearly 200 people were killed in nearby villages over Christmas.
With many dressed in black to mark their mourning, the crowds massed outside the office of the local governor in Plateau State’s capital city to join the call for peace.
Plateau, on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, often suffers flareups in religious and ethnic violence.
“We unequivocally and emphatically call for an end to these sustained attacks and killings on the Plateau and in Nigeria,” rally organiser Reverend Stephen Baba Panya said in a speech.
“Security personnel should be deployed across all the flashpoints in Plateau State to prevent a repeat of the Christmas massacres.”
In attacks in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi local government areas, gunmen raided villages on December 23 and the following days, leaving 198 people dead, according to Plateau State officials.
Thousands of people were also displaced in the attacks, which hit mostly Christian villages.
Around five thousand people joined Monday’s rally, waving banners stating “We are human beings, we are not animals” and “Plateau must be free”, according to an AFP correspondent.
“We lost everything on the farms, because no one is there to harvest,” said Josephine Marren, a farmer who said she also lost two brothers in the attacks.
Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang repeated his promises to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Officials did not blame any group for the attack or say it was related to tensions between farmers and nomadic herders that often spiral into retaliatory violence.
Mutfwang ha d said it was “pure terrorism”.
The coalition of Muslim herders groups in Plateau State, led by Muhammad Nura Abdullahi, said on Sunday that between December 23 to 24 more than 30 members of its community had been killed in the attacks.
Northwest and central Nigeria have long been terrorised by bandit militias operating from bases deep in forests and raiding villages to loot and kidnap residents for ransom.
Competition for natural resources between nomadic herders and farmers, intensified by rapid population growth and climate pressures, has also deepened social tensions a nd triggered violence.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made tackling insecurity a priority since coming to office last year, as he seeks to encourage foreign investment in Africa’s most populous country.