The UN human rights chief said he was “deeply alarmed” by the string of attacks on villages in central Nigeria which left nearly 200 dead, according to local authorities.
Armed groups launched attacks between Saturday evening and Tuesday morning in Plateau State, a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions. The region is on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and mainly Christian south.
Thus, UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement that he is deeply alarmed by the series of attacks by gunmen on multiple rural communities in Plateau State.
He call on the Nigerian authorities to investigate this incident promptly, thoroughly and independently, consistent with international human rights law, and to hold those responsible to account in fair trials.
Turk added that the cycle of impunity fuelling recurrent violence must be urgently broken, while admonishing the government to also take meaningful steps to address the underlying root causes and to ensure non-recurrence of the devastating violence.