At least 49 people have been killed in an attack by an armed gang on a small town in the strife-torn central Nigerian state of Plateau, local police chief Innocent Ilozuoke said Wednesday.
"There was trouble in Yelwa yesterday. A combined team of my men and soldiers has been drafted to maintain peace in the area, but so far I can confirm 49 people have been killed," he told reporters.
Ilozuoke, Plateau State's police commissioner, said that most of the people who were killed had taken refuge in a church, where they had been attacked and massacred by a gang thought to be armed Fulani nomads.
He said some fighting was still going on and that the death toll was likely to rise.
Nomads and farmers, who compete for grazing land, often clash in central Nigeria, where communities are often split between ethnic and religious lines.
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