Clash between Nigeria herders and farmers kills 30

Adeyemi — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:18:31 +0000

At least 30 people have been killed in clashes between herders and farmers in Nigeria’s central Nasarawa State, witnesses say.

Local people have described armed men driving from house to house shooting. Farms and homes have been destroyed in the remote village of Udenin Gida.

The fighting follows weeks of tensions between the two groups.

Nasarawa is in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” where rival ethnic groups often clash over land and other resources.

Nigerian hospital overwhelmed by corpses from police

Adeyemi — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:49:32 +0000

A Nigerian hospital has told the BBC it is overwhelmed by the number of corpses being brought to them by police.

The Chief Medical Director at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu says his staff are being forced to carry out mass burials.

The BBC has established that at least seven people were last seen alive in police custody, accused of kidnapping.

Enugu State Police Commissioner Mohamed Zarewa told the BBC he was too busy to talk about their case.

Nigeria’s police have faced strong criticism from human rights groups for carrying out extrajudicial and arbitrary killings.

The BBC has visited the morgue and taken photographs. The images are disturbing.

They show piles of young men, lying on top of one another and strewn about on tables and floors.

In places the corpses are stacked four or five deep.