Killer herdsmen have attacked three local government areas in Benue, leaving dozens dead in a wave of assaults launched between March 29-30, a government spokesman said.

The incident followed stern warnings from herdsmen that there would be additional bloodshed across Benue unless communities across the state accept the ruga policy proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The scheme involves establishment of settlements for nomadic Fulani herdsmen and their families around lush farmlands gracing the Benue River. It was proposed as one of the fundamental solutions to widespread killings recorded between 2016 and 2018.

The communities have resisted the policy, arguing that it was a backroom effort by the Buhari administration to expropriate their ancestral lands to violent marauders.

Nathaniel Ikyur, press secretary to Governor Samuel Ortom, said witnesses claimed the attackers adorned military fatigues as a decoy to unleash terror on unsuspecting villagers.

“There were coordinated attacks on Guma, Kwande, and Gwer west local government areas of the state,” the official said.

Kpankeeke, a community in Gwer West Local Government was also struck by the attackers, with many deaths reported.

“Gory images of persons killed by another set of herdsmen littered the streets,” the government said.

Agro rangers, a unit of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) established to forestall attacks on agrarian communities, were later called in to contain the situation.

The government said many people had been killed before the intervention.

“Their corpses were taken and deposited at a hospital in Gbajimba, Guma local government area of the state,” Mr Ikyur said.

“Others identified to have been killed by the invaders include Tersoo Yasough and that of a young lady known as Martha Ukange.”

Mr Ikyur noted that efforts were ongoing to locate other missing persons in the affected local government areas. It was not immediately clear how many persons were killed or feared missing as of Thursday morning.

A spokesman for the police in Benue did not immediately return a request seeking comments about the attacks. Armed pastorialists have waged relentless war for control of resources in Benue, Plateau and other central states for years, but the attacks intensified under Mr Buhari.

The president has condemned the violencce and asked security forces to do more, but he has been criticised for suggesting solutions that would give lands of existing ethnic groups to intruding herdsmen who are mainly of his ethinic Fulani group.