50 killed in Boko Haram attack in Nigeria

At least 50 people have been killed and dozens abducted by gunmen in Plateau state in central Nigeria, residents and a community leader said on Monday.

Local residents blamed the latest attack on Boko Haram. Army spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"We are all in pain over the killing of our innocent people who were working on their farmland. ... We buried 50 people today in Rann. They were clearing their farmlands ahead of the rainy season, while others went for firewood," Harun Tom, a local farmer, said.

Agid Muhammad, a farmer who recently returned to Rann after living in an internally displaced-persons camp, described a scene of carnage.

It is the latest in a spate of attacks by armed gangs in central and northern parts of Africa’s most populous nation.

Since 2009, Nigeria's northeast and Borno state in particular have been the centre of an insurgency led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Millions have been displaced and some 350,000 people have died from attacks and the subsequent humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

Over time, Boko Haram has split with an active offshoot called Islamic State West Africa Province also claiming responsibility for attacks in the west African country.