The official death toll in the Plateau Christmas Eve attack in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi has risen to 195 amid the search operations.
The Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Musa Ashoms, disclosed this on Thursday, December 28, 2023.
However, the Nigerian Red Cross, a Non-Governmental Organization in Bokkos disclosed that 161 deaths were recorded with 32,604 persons affected.
The attack has affected 84 communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi and left 29,350 persons displaced.
According to the Red Cross, the coordinated attack left 301 persons injured and 27 houses burnt.
Recall that armed groups, suspected to be herders, launched attacks between Saturday evening and Tuesday morning in Nigeria’s Plateau State, a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions.
Authorities had previously put the death toll at 163.
During a meeting with Nigeria’s vice president on Wednesday, Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, said that 148 Bokkos villagers had been killed in the attacks.
At least 50 people were also reported dead in several villages in the Barkin Ladi area, according to Dickson Chollom, a member of the state parliament.
“We appeal to you to resist the temptation to succumb to sectional divisions or the poisonous rhetoric of hatred towards your fellow citizens, as we pursue justice to ensure your security,” Vice President Kashim Shettima told local officials and displaced people on Wednesday.
President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday decried the attacks and ordered “security agencies to immediately move in, scour every stretch of the zone, and apprehend the culprits”.
Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang also called for “united efforts to identify and apprehend those responsible for these heinous acts”.
Meanwhile, the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Saad Abubakar, has blamed the wanton killings of innocent persons in Plateau State on leadership failure.
