Gunmen kill 11 security personnel in central Nigeria

Nigeria's Middle Belt region, including Benue and Plateau states, has for years suffered deadly farmer-herder clashes over dwindling land as well as attacks from armed criminals known as "bandits".

Council Chairman Justine Shaku told AFP the security personnel were killed in an ambush Sunday by suspected armed herdsmen supported by local gangs in Katsina-Ala local government area.

The attack came during a joint operation carried out by police and the Benue State Civil Protection Guards, a state government-funded security agency. Ten of the dead were police officers and one was a civil protection guard, Shaku said.

"The attackers laid an ambush on the security taskforce on operation, and after exchange of fire, the attackers killed the security operatives," he said.

One civil protection guard is still missing, he added.

The attackers also set fire to two patrol vehicles.

The latest toll from the police was three dead and seven missing as of Sunday. Contacted by AFP, a spokeswoman did not provide an update.

The police also said they had arrested six suspects.

Clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farmers over land use are common in central Nigeria.

With many herders belonging to the Muslim Fulani ethnic group, and many farmers Christian, the attacks often fall across religious and ethnic lines.

Back-to-back massacres in neighbouring Plateau state earlier this year that saw more than 100 killed marked a serious escalation, with state authorities claiming the killings were part of a "genocide" that was "sponsored by terrorists".

Critics say that rhetoric masks the true causes of the conflict -- disputes over land and a failure by authorities and police to govern the countryside.