Communal clashes kill at least 40 in the northeast

At least 40 people were killed when a group of heavily armed men attacked the town of Dumne in northeastern Nigeria, police said on Monday. The attackers, thought to be nomadic herdsmen from neighbouring Chad, attacked the rural town on Friday. ''We have so far confirmed that 40 people were killed, including seven policemen, a soldier and 32 civilians,'' police spokesman Chris Olakpe told reporters. He said the security forces had sent reinforcements to the area to restore order and that police had begun investigating the motives of the attackers, some of whom were arrested and were being questioned. Residents of Dumne said the attack was launched in the middle of the night. Dozens of houses were set ablaze, as was the town’s market. Some people who escaped from the burning houses were shot or hacked to death with matchetes. Most of the victims were women and children, they said. According to reports from the area, some of the residents believed the attack was not unrelated to a violent dispute over grazing land in September 2002 between local people, who are mainly farmers, and nomadic herdsmen. Parts of central and northeastern Nigeria have recorded many violent disputes between indigenous farming communities and nomads in recent years, as increasing desertification on the country's northern fringes forces grazers southward. A year ago, a similar conflict in the Mambilla plateau, which is in the same region, resulted in dozens of deaths and forced more than 25,000 Fulani herdsmen to flee across the border to Cameroon. The northeastern, where Nigeria meets Cameroon and Chad, has been particularly volatile in recent years, with heavily armed groups, remnants of Chad’s rebel wars, often crossing the border to fight in local conflicts.