AT LEAST 200 displaced people believed to be Christians were killed in Nigeria’s troubled Middle Belt last week. The premeditated attack on Friday night was described by a senior Anglican cleric as the work of “a well-trained, well-equipped and well-funded” Fulani Islamist militia group.
The Ven. Dr Hassan John, Director of Research for the Church of Nigeria, said that attackers approached three villages in Benue state, including Yelwata, which they surrounded before opening fire. “Those that tried to flee were either shot or cut down with machetes,” he said. He explained that the initial death toll of more than 100 rose as more bodies were discovered and others, who had been gravely injured, died later.
Dr John told the Church Times that the violence in central states such as Benue should not be understood as a “fight for scarce grazing land” by Fulani Muslim herders driven south by climate change, as it is sometimes termed by some foreign media and governments. “The perpetrators and their sponsors are known and their agenda, under the guise of fighting over grazing land, has been to strategically wipe out villages, particularly Christian villages, leaving out Muslims in the villages, even if they reside side by side with Christians,” he said.
The Roman Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need, said on Monday that the attackers reportedly set fire to the doors of temporary accommodation housing around 500 people in Yelwata’s market square before opening fire on the people inside. They described the violence as a “three-hour killing spree”.
The parish priest of Yelewata, Fr Ukuma Jonathan Angbianbee, told the charity that when he visited the square, “people were slaughtered. Corpses were scattered everywhere.” He added that some people were so badly burned that it was difficult to identify them. He had seen the militants before going to shelter in his presbytery. “They were definitely Fulanis. They were shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ (’God is great’).” He clarified that Yelwata had already taken in thousands of people who had fled from neighbouring villages.
Pope Leo XIV condemned the “terrible massacre” and told crowds in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that he was “praying for security, justice, and peace in Nigeria”. He added that rural Christian communities of Benue State had been “relentless victims of violence”.
Local clergy told ACN that earlier the same evening, police had repelled the attackers as they tried to storm St Joseph’s, Yelewata, where up to 700 displaced people were sleeping.
The chief executive of CSW UK, Scot Bower, said: “The international community must recognise that the violence that has been unfolding in Nigeria’s Middlebelt for over a decade now bears all the hallmarks of an atrocity crime.”
In May, Amnesty International reported that 6896 people had been killed in Benue state alone in the past two years.
An spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), in a statement on Wednesday, described the ongoing violence in Nigeria as “horrific”, saying that “we remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting the Nigerian government and organisations on the ground as they work towards peaceful coexistence between communities.
“To support this, our Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria Programme (SPRiNG) works with the local authorities to implement multiple peacebuilding initiatives across affected areas, working to reduce the risks of violence spilling across state boundaries. This work continues at pace. We must see an end to this unjustified violence.”
