At least 160 people were killed in attacks launched by armed groups, from Saturday night until this morning, in several villages of Plateau State, in central Nigeria, local authorities announced.

“The clashes that started on Saturday continued this morning,” Mandey Kasah, the president of the governing council of Bokos, an area that has been at the center of religious and ethnic tensions in recent years, told AFP. “At least 113 dead have been identified,” he added. The tally announced on Sunday evening by the army spoke of 16 victims.

Another 300 people were injured and were taken to hospitals in Bokos, Jos and Barkin Landi, Mandey Kasah said.

The gunmen, who locals call “bandits”, attacked “at least 20 villages” and the attacks were “well-coordinated”, he described.

The attacks started in Bokos and continued in Barkin Landi, where at least 50 bodies have been found, according to Danjuma Dakil, the president of that region.

The governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfuang, characterized “barbaric, brutal and unjustified” the attack. A spokesman promised that preventive measures would be taken to stop attacks “against innocent civilians”.

Residents of north-west and central Nigeria live in fear of attacks by jihadist organizations and criminal groups who loot villages and kill or take their residents hostage.