Nigerian officials say gunmen have killed more than 100 people in attacks on three villages in central Kaduna state, an area where disputes over land, religion and ethnicity often erupt into violence.
Police confirmed the raids by about 40 Fulani herdsman armed with guns and machetes late Friday and early Saturday on the villages of Angwan Sankwai, Angwan Gata and Chenshyi.
A Kaduna state lawmaker said some of the victims "were shot and burnt in their homes, while others were hacked with machetes."
Hundreds have been killed in the past year in religiously divided central Nigeria, where rivalries between the cattle-herding and largely Muslim Fulani people and mostly Christian farmers have helped fuel the unrest.
The violence has not been linked to the insurgency in the northeast by Boko Haram, an al-Qaida-linked group that wants to impose Sharia law in northern Nigeria.
Police confirmed the raids by about 40 Fulani herdsman armed with guns and machetes late Friday and early Saturday on the villages of Angwan Sankwai, Angwan Gata and Chenshyi.
A Kaduna state lawmaker said some of the victims "were shot and burnt in their homes, while others were hacked with machetes."
Hundreds have been killed in the past year in religiously divided central Nigeria, where rivalries between the cattle-herding and largely Muslim Fulani people and mostly Christian farmers have helped fuel the unrest.
The violence has not been linked to the insurgency in the northeast by Boko Haram, an al-Qaida-linked group that wants to impose Sharia law in northern Nigeria.