AUTHORITIES said Thursday that the death toll from an attack by dozens of gunmen in north Plateau state has reached 80.
Survivors are still searching for bodies days after the gunmen targeted several villages in the remote Mangu district of Plateau during the attack that started Monday and lasted till Tuesday.
Burials continued on Thursday in parts of Mangu located 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Jos, the state capital.
Police said seven suspects have been arrested. It was a “situation of sporadic shooting across a vast area of different villages,” said Alabo Alfred, the command spokesman.
As of Thursday, families in Plateau’s Mangu district are unable to retrieve the bodies of victims in areas that remained volatile.
Survivors said the assailants arrived in large numbers and scattered across the villages, setting houses ablaze while shooting at people.
Residents also said security forces only arrived a day after the attack began, echoing criticisms from analysts that security forces are sometimes slow to respond when violence breaks out.
