The governor's office in Benue state, central Nigeria, said on Saturday that gunmen had murdered at least 56 people earlier this week, drastically reducing the previous toll of 17.
In central Nigeria, conflicts over land usage often occur between farmers and nomadic cattle herders. The assaults in the local government regions of Ukum and Logo were previously attributed to "suspected herdsmen" by Governor Hyacinth Alia.
The assaults in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt sometimes take on a religious or ethnic component since many farmers are Christians and many herders are members of the Muslim Fulani ethnic group. More than 100 people were killed in two assaults earlier this month in adjacent Plateau state by unidentified gunmen.
After Alia's visit to the site, Solomon Iorpev, the governor's communications adviser, told AFP, "The death toll has jumped to 56 from the attacks as at the last count."
He noted that as search and rescue efforts continue, that number may increase.
Security troops were deployed as a result of the assaults, which took place Thursday night and into Friday.
Nigeria's defence minister was in Plateau state over the weekend, according to a report from the government-owned News Agency of Nigeria.
Authorities are frantically trying to quell the assaults in an area where ethnic tensions have long simmered after two killings in Plateau state this month that killed over 50 people in two districts.
According to Plateau state officials, the murders were a part of a "genocide" that was "sponsored by terrorists."
Critics claim such hyperbole obscures the conflict's real roots, which are land conflicts and the police and government's inability to effectively administer the countryside.
According to research company SBM Intelligence, since 2019, the hostilities have displaced 2.2 million people and killed over 500 individuals in the area.
The Plateau state murders were condemned by a local herder organisation, which also pointed out that farmers had attacked its own members.
In recent decades, Plateau state has seen a rise in differences due to land grabbing, political and economic conflicts between native "indigenes" and those deemed foreigners, as well as an inflow of hard-line Christian and Muslim clerics.
Weak police almost ensures indiscriminate retaliatory assaults when violence breaks out.
Climate change and population growth are putting farmers' and herders' land under stress across the Middle Belt, especially Benue, leading to violent struggle over dwindling amounts of space.
"Benue is strategic for Nigerian food security," Iorpev said, while urging the federal government to intervene.
