Assailants suspected to be Fulani herdsmen hacked to death eight farmers in Taraba State, police said on Thursday.
Around 30 machete-wielding assailants accosted the farmers on their way to their crop field in ‎Sondi village in Wukari district, where deadly clashes between farmers and herders over grazing rights are frequent, police spokesman Joseph Kwaji said of the Wednesday attack.
“From reports at my disposal some unidentified attackers hacked to death eight peasant farmers on their way to the farm in Sondi village Wednesday morning,” Kwaji said.
The victims included six men, a woman and a boy of around seven years.
“The attackers are yet to be identified because they fled the scene before the arrival of policemen but the area is known for clashes between herdsmen and farmers,” Kwaji continued.
Teams of anti-riot policemen have been deployed in the area to search for the attackers and to prevent reprisal attacks that could lead to large scale unrest, he added.
