Nigeria, Feb. 10 -- Under a cloudless blue sky one morning in July 2023, Vanger Nyitamen was conveying bags of groundnuts from his thatched house in Akpuuna - a village in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, North-central Nigeria - to the popular Zaki-Biam International Market. But the 43-year-old man never made it to the market.

"Gunmen in large numbers stormed the community, shooting sporadically. My husband was among those killed by the gunmen," his widow, Shiihii, recalled.

Mr Vanger's brother, Bem, and 22 other residents of Akpuuna were killed in the same incident by the gunmen whom the police in Benue State called indigenous bandits.

The bandits unleashed mayhem on locals for two principal reasons - to take control of mark...