Government promises to punish guilty soldiers

The Nigerian government has promised to punish any soldiers "found to have committed any act of indiscipline or not to have followed the rules of engagement" following the recent violence in central Benue State, 'The Guardian' reported a government statement as saying. More than 200 people are reported to have been killed in several Tiv communities near the Benue/Taraba borders in apparent reprisal attacks by the military for the killing of 19 soldiers by a local militia some two weeks earlier. The 19 soldiers were among troops deployed by President Olusegun Obasanjo's federal government to the borders of the two states to end months of low-level conflict over land ownership between Tivs and their Jukun neighbours. The statement said that a situation where soldiers on legitimate peace-keeping assignments were deliberately abducted, murdered and their bodies mutilated, could not be tolerated. However, the government did not confirm whether the military had engaged in reprisal attacks on Tiv communities and reiterated its determination to keep soldiers in volatile areas until calm returns, 'The Guardian' reported.