At least 27 people were reported killed in weekend attacks across Nigeria’s Benue and Plateau states, in the country’s Middle Belt, where farmer-herder conflict and banditry drive much of the violence. Vanguard reported that 18 died in two attacks in Benue’s Otukpo area, 16 of them in Otukpo-Nobi early Sunday. Nigerian police put the Otukpo toll at eight, and Amnesty International at least 10, according to AP. In Plateau State, nine members of one family, including a two-month-old baby, were reportedly killed in an attack on the Kum and Wereng-Camp communities.
The killings came days after the United States confirmed it had withdrawn most of the troops it deployed to Nigeria this year — but from a different war. Those forces operated in the north-east against Islamic State militants around the Lake Chad Basin, with no mandate over the Middle Belt, Reuters reported. Intelligence cooperation with Abuja continues.
The drawdown followed months of pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who warned Nigeria over attacks on Christians. Abuja rejects claims of systematic religious persecution, saying it faces overlapping threats — jihadists, bandits and farmer-herder violence at once, according to Reuters. The U.S. departure changes little in the Middle Belt, where the killing has its own, separate causes — and continues regardless.
