Seven of the fatalities occurred when gunmen on foot opened fire indiscriminately on a small crowd of people near a bar and other shops in the town of Barkin Ladi on Wednesday night, local government chairman Barkin Ladi Dickson Chollom said.

Several other people were wounded.

The area has a history of ethnic and religious conflict but witnesses and the local authorities say both Christians and Muslims were among victims of the latest attack.

On Tuesday night, 14 people, including a policeman, were killed in Riyom area when suspected cattle herders attacked the village of Jol, local government chairman Emmanuel Danboyi Jugul told me.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the state in the past three months in a new wave of violence.

The state government believes the resurgence of the killings is politically motivated ahead of Nigeria’s general elections scheduled for February next year.