At least 23 killed in central Nigeria violence

Officials say at least 23 people have been killed in separate attacks in central Nigeria, as the nation's embattled president prepares to speak to the nation.
It's unclear what President Goodluck Jonathan's address, scheduled for tonight, will be about. However, he recently cut short a visit to southern Africa to return home amid attacks pitting different ethnic groups against each other and continuing assaults by Islamic extremists.
Today, an official in the central Nigerian state of Kaduna said gunmen armed with assault rifles and suspected to be Hausa-Fulani cattle herders killed 11 people in a village there. And in Benue state, a government spokesman said an attack blamed on Hausa-Fulani cattle herders there killed at least 12 people.

The violence continues despite increased military and police deployments.