Sixteen dead in massacre

SEMI-NOMADIC herdsmen armed with guns have killed 16 people in an attack on a church congregation in a central state of Nigeria plagued by communal violence, police say.

Hundreds of people have died in clashes this year between herders and farmers in central Nigeria in an outbreak of violence that has put pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari less than a year before an election.

The bloody clashes, linked to grazing rights and dwindling fertile land, have raised questions about the government’s ability to maintain security.