20091222

ABUJA (Reuters) - More than 30 people were killed and scores of homes set alight in clashes in the past week between nomadic herdsmen and farmers in the central Nigerian state of Nasarawa, police said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people are killed every year in fighting between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and subsistence farmers over farmland and grazing rights in the mainly agrarian central region.

Police said the latest clash erupted on Sunday when herdsmen attacked villages to avenge the killing on December 6 of a Fulani nomad by farmers who said his cattle had destroyed crops.

"Over 100 mostly mud houses have been burned and over 30 people on both sides, including one policeman, are believed to have been killed," Nasarawa state police commissioner Shehu Babalola told Reuters.

"There are claims that people were killed and thrown into the river."

He said soldiers and police deployed to patrol an area of more than 40 villages had since restored order.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country with 140 million people belonging to more than 250 ethnic groups, who mostly live peacefully side-by-side, but competition for scarce resources in rural areas is often fierce and bloody.