Abuja: At least 100 people were killed during a brutal assault on the village of Yelewata in Nigeria’s central Benue state, according to Amnesty International Nigeria.
The attack, which began late Friday and continued into the early hours of Saturday, has left dozens more injured and many still unaccounted for, the organization said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
The rights group reported that some families were trapped and burned alive in their homes, and survivors are struggling without access to adequate medical care.
Benue state lies in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a volatile region where the predominantly Muslim North meets the largely Christian South. The area has long been plagued by violent clashes between nomadic herders and settled farmers, with disputes over land and resources often inflamed by ethnic and religious differences.
This latest massacre follows a similar incident last month in which 42 people were killed in a series of attacks across Gwer West district, also in Benue. Data from research firm SBM Intelligence indicates that over 500 people have been killed in such violence in the region since 2019, and around 2.2 million have been displaced.
