More than 40 people have been killed in separate attacks in recent days in central Nigeria, a local government official said, the latest raids in a region where herders and farmers often clash over land access.

The attacks occurred in three villages between Friday and Sunday, chairman of the Gwer West local government area of Benue state, Ormin Torsar Victor, told news agencies.

At least 42 people were shot dead by suspected herders in a series of weekend attacks across Gwer West district in Nigeria's central Benue state, a local official said Reuters on Tuesday.

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.

"No less than 20 people were killed at Aondana village on Sunday," orsar Victor told AFP over the phone, adding that more than 10 others died in another village.

And a resident of Aondona, Ruthie Dan Sam, told AFP that "20 people were killed here in Aondona. "Children of less than two are being killed. The worst sight is a baby macheted on its mouth."

She added that other people had been killed in neighbouring villages, but she had no figures.

Victor also said that he and other locals had buried five people, including a father and two of his sons killed in the village of Tewa Biana "very close to a military base".

Benue State Police spokesperson Anene Sewuese Catherine confirmed two attacks in the area. She said one raid resulted in the death of a policeman who had "repelled an attack" and that "three dead bodies were discovered".

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Motive for the violence was not clear, but Victor blamed the "coordinated attacks" on Fulani cattle herders.

But such tensions are often worsened by overlapping ethnic and religious divisions in the region.

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.

Muslim ethnic Fulani nomadic herders have long clashed there with settled farmers, many of whom are Christian, in Benue over access to land and resources.

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.

Benue has been one of the states hit hardest by such violence between nomadic herders and farmers who blame herdsmen for destroying farmland with their cattle grazing.

(with newswires)