Attacks kill at least 113 people in central Nigeria

More than a hundred people have been killed in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local government officials said Monday.

The toll marked a sharp rise from the initial figure reported by the army Sunday evening of just 16 dead in a region plagued for several years by religious and ethnic tensions.

"As many as 113 persons have been confirmed killed as Saturday hostilities persisted to early hours of Monday," Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, told AFP.