Nigeria rebels kill dozens in late night raid

Gunmen in central Nigeria's Plateau state killed 37 people in a pre-dawn raid, the military said, the latest unrest to hit the area gripped by a decade-long sectarian conflict.

Area military spokesman Salisu Mustapha told Al Jazeera that unknown gunmen carried out the attack on four villages at about 2 a.m. local time Tuesday.

"The attackers killed 13 people in Katu Kapang, eight in Daron, nine in Tul and seven others in Rawuru."

Mustapha said "the gunmen fled on sighting the arrival of the troops" and that the situation was now "under control."

Nigeria's Plateau state lies in the country's "Middle Belt," the dividing line between the majority Christian south and majority Muslim north.

It was not clear who carried out the latest attack, which hit the Barkin Ladi area, a hotspot in the protracted conflict.

Boko Haram, which is waging a four-year-old war in the north and was recently designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., has previously attacked Plateau, but there was no immediate indication that the banned group was behind the latest violence.

The mostly Muslim Fulani-Hausa group has been blamed for attacks on Christians from the Berom group.

Berom leaders have accused the military of supporting and at times co-operating with the Fulani but such allegations have not been proven.

Several peace processes in Plateau have mostly failed to stop the violence, with deep mistrust persisting between the state's politicians and the security forces.

Al Jazeera and wire services