Fear of another massive attack on Christians is growing in Benue, Nigeria. There, Pastor Fulani massacred up to 200 people in Yerwata village from June 13th to 14th.
The first report confirmed that 100 people had been killed in attacks on the primarily Christian Yelwata, but data later collected by the Makurdi Foundation for Justice, Development and Peace (FJDP) estimated a total casualty of up to 200, according to Catholic Charitable Aid to the Church in Deprived (ACN).
Among those murdered were the nine-person family of Lucy Tsegba, a Yelwata resident.
“My beloved mother, four sisters, three nie and grandmother were killed during the incident,” Tsegba told Star News for Christian Daily International Morning. “I love them, but God loves them more. I will miss them forever. I can’t stop crying.”
In a report to the ACN, the local clergy said earlier that night, police fought off the attackers when they tried to attack St. Joseph’s Church in Yelwata.
“However, extremists have created a town’s market square, where they reportedly used fuel to set fire to the doors of evacuees’ accommodations before a fire was opened in an area where more than 500 people were lying there,” the charity reported.
The death toll has become the worst atrocities in the area, increasing the sudden surge in attacks and indications that a coordinated extremist assault is ongoing to force the entire community to leave, ACN reported.
On Sunday (June 22nd), Benue security officials announced the arrest of several suspects related to the Yelwata attack.
The fear has risen
The attacks in Yogbo village over the past week, as they are also in Guma County, left residents for fear of an invasion by another herdsmen.
“The shooting and murder of Christians is ongoing in Yogbo village in the Guma Local Government area by Fulani herdsmen,” resident Fred Samada told Christian Daily International Morning Star News in a text message Monday (June 23). “Pray for Benue Province.”
Resident Tivta Samuel Aondohemba said last week that fears had risen in Yogbo “following the activities of armed Fulani militias in the region.”
On June 18, the armed Fulani militia tried to launch an attack on Yogbo, he said.
“They entered the community and fired some shots. Luckily, a small number of security guards stationed in the area responded and the militia retreated,” Aondohemba said in an official statement. “However, the situation did not end there as the same armed Fulani militia were found outside Yogbo and freely graze the cattle on a Christian farm.”
The herdsmen also blocked Yogbo Jing Ups Road and killed one Christian, he said.
“On Monday, June 23rd, armed Fulani militia attacked Christian farmers from Yogbo,” Andhenba said. “From these incidents it is clear that armed Fulani militias are targeting Yogbo for the potential for a massive attack.”
The identity of the assailant
In the Yelwata attack, church leaders said ACN bodies were scattered everywhere, burning beyond recognition in the bodies of infants, children and parents.
Rev. Ukuma Jonathan Ambiangbee, the village’s Catholic parish priest, told ACN that he and others had identified the attacker as Fulanis.
“There is no question about who attacked. They were definitely Fulanis,” Angbianbee told ACN. “They were screaming ‘Araf Akbar’. ”
He and other clergymen in Makurdi parish criticized the security response, saying that police had stopped the assailants from accessing the church, but were inadequately equipped and unable to prevent attacks on nearby markets.
A priest from a major parish commented on ACN. “The morning after the attack, there were a lot of police and other security guards, but where was the evening before we needed them?
Church leaders repeatedly called for international support, saying that a jihadist plan was ongoing and was ongoing to grab the land and ethnically cleanse areas of its Christian presence, the ACN report states.
The Rev. Hyacinth Alia, a Catholic priest and governor of Benue, identified the attacker as “substantiated Fulani herdsman.”
The war against Christians
Catholic and evangelical leaders quickly ended their unprovoked bloodshed.
“The ongoing killing by the Fulani militia is a war against Christians in Nigeria,” Pastor Yusuf Tulaki, former vice president of the Nigerian Christian Association (CAN), told Christian Daily International Morning Star News. “It’s a false story to argue that herdsmen/peasants are in conflict with the country: the Minister of Defense, national security advisers, all Muslims control Muslims from Fulani ethnic groups and control our national security.
Pentecostal pastor Johnson Suleiman said that if the federal government knows it is overwhelmed, or if its security architecture fails, authorities should be humble enough to communicate to citizens.
“What’s going on in Benue State is evil, wild bar and mayhem,” Pastor Suleiman said.
Another Pentecostal leader, Isa Elbuba, said that residents protesting in the federal capital, Abuja, spoke out in righteous rage as well as protest.
“The murder of Benue Province is not a distant tragedy, it is a dishonorable nation,” Elbuba said. “We call on the Nigerian government. Do you need to lose more lives before you act? How silent will we remain as the blood of innocent men, women and children scream from the ground?”
Leadership is the responsibility of seeking protection, and if the government can’t protect people, it has failed them, he said.
“We demand urgent action. We demand justice. We demand peace,” he said. “It’s time to talk, it’s time to act.”
From the Catholic Church, bishops from the parish of Abuja, Onisha, Lagos and Haringo condemned the attack and called on the Nigerian government to end the violence as an urgent matter.
With millions of figures in Nigeria and Sahel, Fulani, primarily Muslim, constitute hundreds of clans of many different lines that do not hold the views of extremists, while some Fulani adhere to radical Islamist ideology, all party parliamentary groups (Appgs) in the UK for international freedom or beliefs.
“They are clearly intent to adopt a comparable strategy for Boko Haram and Iswap and target strong symbols of Christian and Christian identity,” the AppG report said.
Nigerian Christian leaders say they believe herdsmen’s attacks on the Christian community in the mid-zone of Nigeria are inspired by the desire to forcefully take over Islam as it forced Christian lands and made desertification difficult to maintain the flock.
According to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, Nigeria has remained one of the most dangerous places for Christians. According to WWL, of the 4,476 Christians killed for faith around the world during the reporting period, 3,100 (69%) were in Nigeria.
“The scale of anti-Christian violence in this country is already at the highest possible level under the global watch list methodology,” the report states.
In the north-central zone of the country, where Christians are more common than they are in the northeast and northwest, Islamic extremist Fulani militias attack farm communities, killing hundreds of Christians and, above all, hundreds of Christians. Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State (ISWAP) of West African states are also active in northern states in the country where federal control is scarce and Christians and their communities continue to be targeted for attacks, sexual violence and the killing of disability. Ransom aid has been increasing significantly in recent years.
The violence spreads across southern states, with new jihadist terrorist group Lakrawa appearing in the northwest, armed with sophisticated weapons and an extremist agenda, WWL noted. Lakrawa is affiliated with the expansionist al-Qaeda rebellion Jamaa Nusrat ul Islam Wa al-Muslimin, or Zinim, which is derived from Mali.
Nigeria ranked 7th in the 2025 WWL list of 50 worst countries for Christians.
