Scores killed in attack on village

More than 100 people were killed and thousands rendered homeless when men dressed in military uniforms attacked villages in Benue State, central Nigeria, on Tuesday, local officials said. The assailants destroyed many houses in Vatse, Zaki-Biam, Anyiin and Gbeji settlements, located near Benue's border with neighbouring Taraba State, the officials added. The attacks came less than two weeks after a contingent of 22 soldiers deployed to halt clashes between two neighbouring communities, the Tiv and the Jukun, were abducted at Vatse on 10 October. The mutilated bodies of 19 of the soldiers were found two days later in the Tiv stronghold of Zaki-Biam. This led thousands of people to flee the area for fear of reprisal attacks by the armed forces. At the burial of the 19 soldiers on Monday, President Olusegun Obasanjo pledged that everything would be done to track down those responsible for killing them and to prevent a repeat of such incidents. "At Gbejir the residents said the soldiers asked members of the community to gather at the village square for an address," Mike Iyovorse, a local government official from the area, told IRIN. "Then they separated the men from the women and children and killed all the men." Nigerian military authorities have denied responsibility for the attacks. The army's spokesman, Colonel Felix Chukwumah, told journalists that soldiers in the area had strict instructions to retrieve weapons from militants and track down those who killed their colleagues but not to attack villagers. Shima Ayati, the Benue State official responsible to taking care of the refugees described the situation as very desperate. "There is an alarming refugee situation in Benue State beyond the capacity of the government," he told journalists. "We are appealing to international organizations to assist."