KANO, Nigeria, June 23 (Reuters) – Police in Nigeria’s central Plateau state said on Tuesday that 20 people had been killed in a weekend attack on a community in Bokkos district, the latest in a region plagued by communal attacks despite repeated security deployments and government vows to stem the attacks.
• Plateau is one of several ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland states known as the Middle Belt, where communal conflict has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.
• Plateau police spokesperson Alfred Alabo said officers, working with other security agencies, engaged the attackers in a “fierce gun battle” early morning on Sunday before they fled.
• Eighteen people were killed at the scene and two died later in hospital, Alabo said.
• Plateau police commissioner Bassey Ewah has ordered additional deployments to the area including more tactical and mobile police units, Alabo said.
(Reporting by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano; Writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo;Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
