Search for dead victims continue in Mangu
Relations and volunteers have continued to search for their missing persons believed to have fallen victim of the two day Mangu mayhem which claimed over 43 persons in Plateau State.
Village farmers had clashed with roaming herdsmen, resulting in the death of nearly 50 people who have been declared dead even though only 43 people have been confirmed dead after their bodies were recovered and indentified.
Trouble had started when cattle belonging to Fulani herders escaped and roamed the farms of the Mwagaful community. The loose cattle were said to have triggered the clashes which raged in remote villages while security agencies deployed personnel in the urban areas.
The Oracle Today reports that Plateau State and its capital, Jos, have remained flashpoints of ethnic and religious battles over farming and grazing grounds, pitching armed Islamic Fulani herders with mainly local Christian farmers.
Nearly 200 people were reported killed in religious violence over the Christmas period last month in the state.
In the last clashes which reportedly lasted for two days in Mangu, seven mosques and four churches were confirmed destroyed, according to witnesses who also confirmed that the clashes claimed many victims whose homes were also set ablaze during attacks.
Witnesses told reporters that people were burnt to death when armed arsonists besieged their villages while others were cut down in the streets as angry ethnic rivals clashed over land.
Relatives of missing persons are said to be combing rubbles of burnt buildings in search of friends and family members who have not been accounted for.
“There are some people who were killed and their bodies hidden, so we are still trying to search for them at the moment,” a respondent said.
The 24-hour curfew imposed by the state government has calmed the situation, witnesses stated, but concerns are high that search for dead bodies might trigger revenge attacks.