Benue Massacre: A Perfect Storm of Terrorism, Banditry, and Religious Conflict in Nigeria’s Middle Belt
Ujasusi Blog’s West Africa Monitoring Team | 19 June 2025 | 0210 BST
From late Friday into the early hours of Saturday 14 June 2025, the rural community of Yelewata in Benue State, central Nigeria, became the scene of one of the deadliest assaults the region has witnessed in years. On the night of June 13, armed assailants stormed the village in Guma Local Government Area and massacred villagers in a coordinated onslaught. Initial reports indicate around 200 people were killed in the attack, with dozens more missing and hundreds injured, many suffering gunshot or burn wounds as homes were set ablaze. The carnage was so severe that even Pope Francis decried the “terrible massacre” during his Sunday prayers. Shockingly, a number of the victims were internally displaced persons (IDPs) – families who had fled earlier waves of violence only to be slaughtered in what was supposed to be a place of refuge. The Yelewata massacre underscores how Benue State is at the epicentre of Nigeria’s overlapping security crises.
Federal authorities responded swiftly. Within days, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Inspector-General of Police (IGP) arrived in Yelewata to oversee a joint military-police operation and launch a cross-border manhunt for the perpetrators. Troop reinforcements were deployed, and President Bola Tinubu postponed other engagements to visit Benue, signalling the gravity of the situation. Security chiefs described the killings not as an isolated local dispute, but as an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty. “These mindless acts of terror are not just attacks on Benue people, but attacks on the sovereignty and integrity of the nation,” said the IGP, warning that an attack on any community is tantamount to an attack on the entire country. Such statements reflect the widespread alarm that this incident is more than a local tragedy – it is a flashpoint where multiple security threats converge, threatening stability on a national scale.