Massacres in Border Communities Ignite New Terror Wave in Benue State

Doowuese Kohol*, a woman in her 70s, was fast asleep on the night of Saturday, June 13, after what she described as a “peaceful day”. Her children had spent it tending to farm work and running other errands. The evening rain had cooled the air, making it perfect for rest. But just before 11:00 p.m., Doowuese’s children burst into her hut, waking her in a panic.

When Doowuese opened her eyes, the air was filled with screams and smoke. Armed assailants had descended on Yelwata, an agrarian community in the Guma Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State, North-central Nigeria.

“It was terrifying,” she told HumAngle. “The scariest moment of my life.”

Her children hastily lifted her into a wheelbarrow and pushed her through narrow, rugged footpaths under darkness, fleeing towards Makurdi, the state capital. “When we got far enough from the village, we looked for somewhere to hide,” Doowuese recounted.

Yelwata is a roadside community along the Benue–Nasarawa–Abuja federal highway. It lies on the border with Nasarawa State and is less than an hour’s drive from Makurdi.

By dawn, state authorities deployed buses to evacuate survivors. Doowuese and her children emerged from hiding and joined others who escaped the night-long horror. But not everyone was left with the buses. Some stayed behind to search for missing relatives, tend to the wounded, or guard what was left of their homes. While community leaders claim the death toll exceeded 200, the state government puts the number at 151.

“It is dishonest for the state to downplay the numbers,” said Franc Utoo, a policy researcher and native of Yelwata. “The attack lasted over three hours. Many of those killed were already displaced people who usually sleep in makeshift shelters, at the primary school or in abandoned market stalls at the Yelwata New Market, because they are too afraid to remain in their homes.”

HumAngle obtained video footage from Yelwata showing bloodstained floors, burnt bodies and skeletons, and widespread destruction of houses and farm produce. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported that dozens of people were injured, with 46 rushed to hospitals. “Sadly, 20 later succumbed to their injuries at the hospital,” the agency said.

On Sunday, June 15, several residents of Makurdi gathered at Wurukum Roundabout, a major entrance to the state capital, demanding accountability and justice. Barely an hour after they assembled, security operatives fired tear gas and dispersed the crowd.

“[…] but there was little to no security response throughout the attack,” Franc added. Other witnesses confirmed this, saying only a handful of security personnel were present at the local police station, and some were killed while trying to defend the community. According to NEMA, two soldiers and one civil defence officer died in an ambush while responding.

‘We fled with nothing’

On Monday, June 16, NEMA reported that 1,069 households, comprising 6,527 individuals, had been displaced. Among them were 1,768 females and 759 males; 657 children under 18, 1,870 adults over 18, 252 lactating mothers, 82 pregnant women, and 91 elderly persons. These numbers reflect only survivors like Doowuese seeking refuge at the Makurdi International Market, now serving as a makeshift camp. Many others are crowded into overstretched displacement camps or have found shelter with relatives.

“Pregnant women and children are scattered everywhere in the camp. There’s no food, no water, no mosquito nets, and some stalls have no doors,” Mannasseh Mbachii, a journalist and resident of Makurdi, told HumAngle shortly after visiting the site.

The economic toll of the violence is equally devastating. Iormba, a farmer in Yelwata, lost multiple ventures in the attack, including a rice warehouse valued at tens of millions of naira. Everything he had worked for was destroyed, leaving him and his family with nothing to return to. Iormba also lost four family members that night, including his younger brother Matthew Iormba, a pharmacist who had travelled home to inspect some of his businesses. He was burned alive. Other residents say they lost between 5 and 10 loved ones in the onslaught. 

Amnesty International, a global human rights organisation, estimates that more than 6,896 people have been killed in such attacks across Benue between 2024 and May 2025. 

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), over 500,000 registered IDPS lived in Benue State as of 2024. The number continues to rise, placing Benue among Nigeria’s states with the highest displacement figures. The IOM estimate excludes several unregistered individuals sheltering with relatives or scattered across informal settlements.

“It is a serious humanitarian crisis, and if action isn’t taken now, the consequences will be devastating,” said Shadrach Akpem, a local social commentator, who visited the makeshift camp on Sunday, June 15. 

“We fled with nothing,” Doowuese, who now struggles to get the few meals distributed by non-profit groups at the camp, told HumAngle. That night, she fled her home in Yelwata with nothing but a wrapper and a sleeveless blouse.

The Yelwata massacre is just one of many near-daily attacks occurring across Benue’s rural communities. “Most don’t make the news because the number of casualties isn’t always this high,” said Antipas Shomwua, a local humanitarian worker and security analyst. 

Why the borders?

From Kwande LGA, which borders Cameroon, to Guma LGA near Nasarawa, a troubling trend is emerging: border communities are targeted.

Neighbouring states to Benue, including Cameroon, are also grappling with varying degrees of armed violence. Taraba has witnessed massacres similar in pattern to Benue’s, allegedly perpetrated by armed herders, while Nasarawa continues to report deadly attacks linked to the same group. In June 2023, an airstrike by the Nigerian Air Force targeting “suspected terrorists” killed several civilians in Doma LGA, raising further concerns about the security landscape. 

Along Benue’s southern border, the southeastern states of Enugu and Ebonyi remain troubled by separatist activities linked to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who are accused of killings, kidnappings, and the enforcement of violent sit-at-home orders. Ebonyi and Cross River, both bordering Benue, have also suffered attacks by armed groups.

Across the border in Cameroon, the protracted Anglophone crisis continues to displace thousands and destabilise communities. A recent HumAngle investigation highlighted links between IPOB operatives and separatist fighters in southern Cameroon, adding a transnational dimension to the violence. In Cameroon’s Far North, terrorist groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP remain active, further militarising the region.

These armed conflicts, stretching across borders and involving a mix of armed groups, suggest that Benue’s frontiers may be emerging as pressure points in a broader, more complex regional conflict.

Shedrach believes the porous nature of these borders allows attackers to strike and retreat with little resistance.

“The borders are critical to the work we are doing [in securing the communities],” the country’s Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, said during a visit to Yelwata on Monday, June 16. 

But not everyone attributes the violence solely to weak borders. A Makurdi-based social commentator, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, believes a more strategic motive is at play. “It’s not just about porous borders,” he said. “It’s about encircling the state, cutting off the entrances and exit routes. These attacks are calculated and deliberate.”

The commentator’s position resonates with several others who spoke to HumAngle. 

Barely 24 hours after the Yelwata assault, the assailant struck again, this time in Mbaivur, an intra-state border settlement near the Nigerian Air Force base and Makurdi Airport.

Doosen Foto survived the attack but lost her 13-year-old son. “She hid the other four children in the ceiling. He [her late son] was outside, running, when they killed him at the edge of the compound,” her cousin Michael Adigam told HumAngle. Doosen hid in the bathroom but was eventually discovered and was slashed with machetes. She survived the wounds.

“She’s now staying with relatives in a safer area and receiving treatment, while also mourning the child who is in the mortuary,” Michael added.

“We live in fear every day,” said Mngohol, a Mbaivur resident who only asked to be identified by her first name. She spoke to HumAngle via phone while attempting to withdraw cash to flee to Gboko, where some of her relatives live, nearly two hours away.

Residents of other border communities near Yelwata, including Kadarko — a Nasarawa State community dominated by Benue natives — have also begun fleeing, fearing further attacks.

For years, these attacks were often categorised as clashes between farmers and herders, driven by disputes over land, dwindling resources, and the impacts of climate change. But residents and community leaders say that characterisation no longer fits.

“The way these attacks come, and the intel we receive, it is a directed, calibrated plan, and then executed,” Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, recently stated. “Daily, we receive this intel. Of late, 60 to 65 per cent of it is quite accurate. And when you realise what is going on, it is beyond just conflict or ethnic clashes between herders and farmers; it is directed, planned, and executed. It is some form of terrorism.”

His Plateau State counterpart, Caleb Mutfwang, echoed this sentiment after the deadly April attack on Zike village in Bassa LGA, which claimed 52 lives. “This is not an isolated conflict between farmers and herders. What we are witnessing is a systematic and premeditated campaign, one that seeks to displace, destabilise, and instil terror and fear in our people and communities,” he said. Zike borders Kaduna State, where the community leaders claimed the attackers came from. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the Yelwata massacre or similar attacks in the state. But many residents say the perpetrators often arrive posing as nomadic herders or speak Fulfulde during these attacks. “I heard them clearly. I was inside the room, and I escaped narrowly,” Michael Ajah, a survivor of the Yelwata massacre, said. 

In a 2016 documentary by Channels TV, Terwase Akwaza, widely known as Gana, a notorious militia leader later killed by security forces after accepting a government amnesty, claimed that some herders had approached him to help them “capture Benue, Taraba, Plateau, and Nasarawa.” He said he turned down the request because the funds offered were inadequate. However, former Governor Samuel Ortom accused him of facilitating killings across the state, particularly in the Sankera axis at the Benue-Taraba border. Some commentators claim the attackers may be colluding with local criminals to carry out the assaults. We cannot independently confirm these claims. 

“We need the community to work with us. Even within us [security operatives], there are people who compromise and give out information. Going round [the community], you see the way some of the burnings were done was targeted, which means they have insiders,” the Chief of Defence Staff told journalists in Yelwata. 

At a recent town hall event, Adamu Lawal, an official of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), said: “Everybody associates our members [the herders] with criminality, but the criminals are only a few of them… and it has tarnished the image of all of us; we suffer from stigmatisation.” HumAngle has extensively covered how ethnic profiling due to criminal elements among the nomadic Fulani tribe has affected them across the country. 

Lawal claimed that over the past decade, more than 50,000 herders have been killed and five million cattle lost. MACBAN also did not specify where these losses occurred.

In response, James Ayatse, the Tor Tiv and chair of the Benue State Traditional Council, said: “Growing up, the herders only came with staff to guide the herds so that they would not destroy farms. The nomadic culture that we know didn’t seek to take over our land or kill us.”

“What we have now are criminal [disguised as] herders, carrying assault rifles who are killing us and taking over our lands,” Ayatse argued. 

Several residents who spoke to HumAngle echoed his words, saying that the locals had a cordial relationship with herders until “they were infiltrated,” said Michael, a civic engagement advocate. 

In May, the Benue State Traditional Council issued a 14-day ultimatum demanding that all herders and illegal occupants vacate their ancestral lands. Several sources who spoke with HumAngle, some already cited in this report, said that the attacks have worsened since then. 

Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has condemned the Yelwata massacre, describing it as “reprisal attacks”. He directed the state governor to convene “reconciliation meetings and dialogue among the warring parties to end the incessant bloodshed and bring lasting peace and harmonious coexistence between farmers, herders, and communities.”

“How do you hold reconciliation meetings with people you don’t know, people who attack you while you are sleeping, people with whom you don’t share land boundaries? How is that a communal clash?” said the Makurdi-based social commentator. 

Land disputes are an age-long issue amongst neighbouring indigenous communities in Benue State; some have even led to the loss of lives and destruction of properties. A recent example is in Ohimini Local Government Area, where a traditional ruler and two others were killed in May. However, the social commentator and several others who spoke with HumAngle said, “it is different from the incessant killings happening across inter/intra-state border communities.”

“Yelwata, for instance, is not experiencing any communal clash with a neighbouring community or within themselves to warrant a reprisal attack,” the commentator added. 

‘Operation end this impunity’

President Tinubu has since ordered Nigeria’s security chiefs to coordinate operations to restore order. On Monday, June 16, the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, visited Yelwata alongside the state governor to assess the situation. 

“We are working to ensure that this rain of impunity of criminal elements ends,” Egbetokun said. The president is scheduled to visit the state on Wednesday, July 18.

But for many survivors, official visits, promises of security operations, and talk of reconciliation feel detached from the reality on the ground. There is no guarantee that tonight will not end like the one Doowuese and Doosen barely survived.

Benue’s borders remain open and vulnerable. Across these quiet frontiers, communities are being hunted, homes destroyed, and lives erased.

“When will it end?” Michael asked, sighing heavily.