Officials recover 36 bodies after attack in Nigeria’s north
Gunmen arrived in a large group in the remote Gbeji community of Benue state Wednesday and opened fire on villagers
Such attacks are frequent in Nigeria’s middle belt and central regions where deadly clashes between local communities and herdsmen have continued for many years
Updated 22 October 2022
AP
ABUJA, Nigeria: At least 36 bodies have been recovered after gunmen attacked a village in northcentral Nigeria, officials said Friday, prompting calls for the nation’s government to license sophisticated guns for local guards.
The gunmen reportedly arrived in a large group in the remote Gbeji community of Benue state Wednesday and opened fire on villagers in the latest deadly violence in the West African nation’s troubled northern region.
Two police officers were among those killed in the attack that left many injured, said Terver Akase, a spokesman for the Benue state government.
Details of the incident remained sketchy Friday. Akase blamed the assault on herdsmen, while local media said it was a reprisal for herders in the community being targeted by an earlier attack.
Benue officials visited Gbeji on Friday and met with families of the victims, urging the national government to license sophisticated guns for the state’s local security force to defend residents.
“The security agencies have been overstretched. That being the case, our people have to defend themselves,” a government statement quoted Gov. Ortom’s representative as saying.
Gabriel Suswam, who represents the affected area in Nigeria’s Senate, said the Nigerian government “has failed woefully in the protection of lives and property.”
Such attacks are frequent in Nigeria’s middle belt and central regions where deadly clashes between local communities and herdsmen have continued for many years, defying government and security measures. At least 14 people were killed in a similar incident in another part of Benue a month ago.
The herdsmen are mostly young pastoralists from Nigeria’s Fulani tribe caught up in a decades-long conflict between host communities and herdsmen over limited access to water and land.
Attacks sometimes take a religious turn between Muslim and Christian communities amid Nigeria’s deep religious divide and it is common for authorities to not announce any arrests in many cases.
Agonizing wait as Switzerland works to identify New Year’s fire victims
Authorities begin moving bodies from burned-out bar in luxury ski resor Crans-Montana
At least 40 people were killed in one of Switzerland's worst tragedies
Updated 02 January 2026
AFP
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland: Families endured an agonizing wait for news of their loved ones Friday as Swiss investigators rushed to identify victims of a ski resort fire at a New Year’s celebration that killed at least 40 people.
Authorities began moving bodies from the burned-out bar in the luxury ski resort town Crans-Montana late Friday morning, with the first silver-colored hearse rolling into the funeral center in nearby Sion shortly after 11:00 am (1000 GMT), AFP journalists saw.
Around 115 people were also injured in the fire, many of them critical condition.
As the scope of the tragedy — one of Switzerland’s worst — began to sink in, Crans-Montana appeared enveloped in a stunned silence.
Mathias Reynard, president of the Council of State of Valais Canton, with Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani outside "Le Constellation" bar in Crans-Montana where a fire and explosion on New Year's Eve killed more than 40 people. (Reuters)
“The atmosphere is heavy,” Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old tourist from Geneva who has been coming to the resort since 1974, told AFP.
“It’s like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been affected,” he said.
It is not yet clear what set off the blaze at Le Constellation, a bar popular with young tourists, at around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) Thursday.
Bystanders described scenes of panic and chaos as people tried to break the windows to escape and others, covered in burns, poured into the street.
‘Screaming in pain’
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he had seen “bodies lying here, ... covered with a white sheet,” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive... Screaming in pain.”
The exact death toll was still being established.
And it could rise, with canton president Mathias Reynard telling the regional newspaper Wallizer Bote that at least 80 of the 115 injured were in critical condition.
Swiss authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, an agonizing wait for family and friends.
Condolences poured in from around the world, including from Pope Leo XIV, who offered “compassion and solidarity” to victims’ families.
Online, desperate appeals abound to find the missing.
“We’ve tried to reach our friends. We took loads of photos and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, all possible social networks to try to find them,” said Eleonore, 17. “But there’s nothing. No response.”
‘The apocalypse’
The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear.
Le Constellation had a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who took office on Thursday, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, terrifying proportions” and announced that flags would be flown at half-mast for five days.
“We thought it was just a small fire — but when we got there, it was war,” Mathys, from the neighboring village of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, told AFP. “That’s the only word I can use to describe it: the apocalypse.”
Authorities have declined to speculate on what caused the tragedy, saying only that it was not an attack.
Several witness accounts, broadcast by various media, pointed to sparklers mounted on champagne bottles and held aloft by restaurant staff as part of a regular “show” for patrons.
‘Dramatic’
Pictures and videos shared on social media also showed sparklers on champagne bottles held into the air, as an orange glow began spreading across the ceiling.
One video showed the flames advancing quickly as revellers initially continued to dance.
One young man playfully attempted to extinguish the flames with a large white cloth, but the scene became panic-stricken as people scrambled and screamed in the dark against a backdrop of smoke and flames.
The canton’s chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said investigators would examine whether the bar met safety standards.
Red and white caution tape, flowers and candles adorned the street outside, while police shielded the site with white screens.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said 13 Italians had been injured in the fire, and six remained missing, was among those to lay flowers at the site.
The French foreign ministry said nine French citizens figured among the injured, and eight others remained unaccounted for.
After emergency units at local hospitals filled, many of the injured were transported across Switzerland and beyond.
Patients are being treated in Italy, France and Germany, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country was ready to provide “specialized medical care to 14 injured.”
Multiple sources told AFP the bar owners were French nationals: a couple originally from Corsica who, according to a relative, are safe, but have been unreachable since the tragedy.
