LAGOS, Nigeria

Armed herdsmen attacked the Otobi community in Benue State in Nigeria’s north-central region Tuesday, a day after gunmen killed 51 people in Plateau State.

The attack in Akpa district of the Otukpo Local Government Area left seven people dead and more than 20 wounded, with many houses burnt.

According to Kennedy Angbo, the lawmaker representing Otukpo-Akpa Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly, the attack occurred around 5.30 p.m. and lasted for two hours.

“We need help, as our people are being killed mercilessly,” Angbo told Anadolu by phone, adding that hundreds of people have fled the community.

Police are yet to comment on the attack.

Otobi, a community hosting the Federal Ministry of Water Resources Multipurpose Water Dam, has now come under attack three times in April.

State police spokesperson Catherine Anene said an official statement will be released to the press later.

A crisis between farmers and herders, which has claimed thousands of lives, has become one of Nigeria’s gravest security challenges in recent years.

The conflict, which is fundamentally a resource control problem between farmers and herders across the country, is fast sharpening ethnic, regional and religious polarization.