At least 12 forest guards killed in gunmen attack in north-central Nigeria

At least 12 forest guards have been killed after gunmen attacked a community in northcentral Nigeria, local police said Monday.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the killings on Sunday in Oke-Ode, a community in the state of Kwara, police spokesperson Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi said in a statement.

Such attacks are common in Nigeria’s northern region where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water. The farmers accuse the herders, mostly of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce. The herders insist that the lands are grazing routes that were first backed by law in 1965, five years after the country gained its independence.

The bodies of the 12 guards were found by a team of police officers and members of the National Forest Security Service.

“‎The victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds,” Ejire-Adeyemi said, adding that four survivors are being treated in hospital.

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the governor of Kwara, called on the military to “rout the criminals involved in attacks in parts of the state.”

He said in a statement: “I urge our brave residents to remain calm and avoid the temptation to turn on ourselves. I equally commend all the forest guards and the local hunters who, though lost five of their compatriots, equally neutralised several of the attackers.”

In June, at least 150 people were killed in a single attack on a community in Nigeria’s northcentral state of Benue.