Thirty-two bodies were recovered from Sunday's assaults on the Ahume and Aondona villages, while 10 more were killed in a separate attack on the villages of Tyolaha and Tse-Ubiam on Saturday, said Victor Omnin, chairman of the Gwer West local government.

"It's a pathetic situation. As we speak, we are still recovering corpses," Omnin told journalists.

Benue is in Nigeria's Middle Belt, a region where the majority Muslim North meets the largely Christian South. The region faces competition over land use, with conflicts between herders, who seek grazing land for their cattle, and farmers, who need arable land for cultivation. These tensions are often worsened by overlapping ethnic and religious divisions.

Benue Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia's office said a Catholic priest was also shot in the area by the assailants and is in critical but stable condition.

--Reuters--