LAGOS, Oct 16, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Gunmen have killed at least 14 people in separate attacks on two villages in central Nigeria's Plateau state, a Red Cross official told AFP on Wednesday.

The state and the wider central Nigeria region has for years suffered deadly clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling land, as well as attacks from armed criminals widely described as "bandits".

The Red Cross secretary in Plateau, Nurudeen Hassan Magaji, said the attack late Tuesday killed 12 people, including four women, in Rachas Yelwa, a village in the Barkin Ladi district.

He added that two other people were killed in a separate attack in the village of Rawuru.

Barkin Ladi council chairman Stephen Pwajok called the attacks "unfortunate, unprovoked and deeply regrettable".

"The two attacks that killed 14 people are unacceptable," he added.

Land-use clashes between nomadic cattle herders, often members of the Muslim Fulani ethnic group, and farmers who are mainly Christian are common in central Nigeria.

The tensions escalated earlier this year after back-to-back massacres in Plateau state that saw more than 100 people killed, with state authorities claiming the killings were part of a "genocide" that was "sponsored by terrorists".