Latest news with #BenueAttacks
BBC News
5 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Benue attacks: 'Dem come guerrilla style and begin dey butcher pipo'
Di number of pipo wey don die from di attacks on Gwer West and Apa Local Goment Areas of Benue State don rise to ova 50 local authorities tok. Suspected herdsmen attack residents of Tse-Antswam for Naka town, wey be headquarters of Gwer West LGA and Edikwu Ankpali for Apa local goment area of Benue state. Tori be say many pipo die, as oda pipo run to save dia lives. According to di Chairman of Gwer West Council Mr. Victor Ormin and di traditional council, Chief Daniel Abomtse bin confam say dem bin recover 21 deadibody on Sunday. Chief Abomtse di Ter Nagi, tok say di attackers bin come in guerrilla style wen dem attack Tse Antswam. Im add say many pipo get different degree of injuries. "In fact, di way dem butcher some of di pipo I doubt if dem go survive, we still dey search becos many pipo bin run inside bush wit gun wounds and some also enta inside well to escape di herdsmen," di monarch tok. According to Chief Abomtse, di community wey dis attack happun dey directly opposite di military check point along Naka/ Makurdi road. Edikwu record 37 deaths Meanwhile for Edikwu Ankpali for Apa Local Goment Area, di causality figure hit na 37. Di Chairman of Apa Local Goment Area, Adam Ogwola, wey confam di tori say dem still dey expect di number of death victims to increase as dem still dey search and dem dey see more deadbody. "Di attack dey devastating" "Di pipo wey wound dey for general hospital already and dey get medical attention". One community leader, John Ikwu also confam say dem bin see 25 deadbody on Sunday for Edikwu Ankpali. Di community leader say time don reach wey dem go begin confront di jaguda pipo as im describe di killing as barbaric and unwarranted. Im say na heartless killers dey attack dia communities evriday without control. For statement wey di Benue State Police Command release on Monday, through dia tok-tok pesin Udeme Edet, dem say di Commissioner of Police, Emenari Ifeanyi don relocate di Area Commander to Apa. Im also direct di tactical team to take over Naka as im deploy resources to flash points for di state including Apa and Gwer-west Local Goment Areas. For police statement, dem tok say na ten and twelve pipo die for di two attacks and five odas bin dey hospital. "For di last one month, personnel wey we post to dis areas don dey fight wit dis attackers and dem don suppress dem for most areas. Unfortunately, dis bandits dey search for vulnerable pesins and attack dem, dem kill some pipo on 1st June, 2025." Di CP dem redeploy personnel to cover up entries and exits to flash points. In di last two weeks, tori about different type of death don full for social media and news channels. Benue state na one of di flash points wey suspected herders dey attack communities and kill pipo. For April, di number of death for Benue herdsmen attack on Logo and Gbagir rise to 56. Even though di govnor bin don condemn dis attacks many times, e still dey happun.
News24
27-05-2025
- General
- News24
Nigeria attacks kill 44: local official
At least 44 people, including children and a pregnant woman, were killed in coordinated attacks in Benue state, Nigeria, over four days. Local officials blamed Fulani herders for the raids, describing them as systematic and brutal, with some victims mutilated. A Catholic priest was shot and wounded, and two passengers were abducted during one of the attacks; police confirmed fewer casualties. At least 44 people have been killed in separate attacks in recent days in central Nigeria, a local government official said on Tuesday, raising the toll in the latest raids in a region where herders and farmers often clash. The attacks occurred in three villages between Friday and Monday, the chairperson of the Gwer West local government area of Benue state, Ormin Torsar Victor, told AFP. Motives for the violence were not clear, but Victor blamed the 'coordinated attacks' on Fulani cattle herders. Muslim ethnic Fulani nomadic herders have long clashed with settled farmers, many of whom are Christian, in Benue over access to land and resources. 'As of today morning, I passed through Aondona, they were mentioning 14 bodies that have been recovered, including a pregnant woman and a boy of two,' he told AFP, adding that 30 others were killed in Ahume. 'Yesterday evening one person was killed, the number keeps increasing by the day. Even now I think some corpses have not yet been discovered,' he said, calling the attacks 'systematic'. The victims were either shot or stabbed, he said. He said the 'pregnant woman was macheted' while the two-year-old boy was 'mutilated'. A Catholic priest was shot and wounded while driving along the Markudi-Naka road, the church and the local government official said. 'They shot him and left him there thinking he was dead,' said Victor, adding that two passengers that were with him were abducted. In a call for prayers for the wounded priest posted on Facebook, the church said he was shot by 'suspected terrorist herdsmen'. 'Coordinated attacks' A resident of Aondona, Ruthie Dan Sam, told AFP late on Monday that '20 people were killed here in Aondona'. She said: Children of less than two are being killed. The worst sight is a baby macheted on its mouth. She added that other people had been killed in neighbouring villages, but said she had no figures. Victor said he and other locals had buried five people, including a father and two of his sons killed in the village of Tewa Biana 'very close to a military base'. Benue state police spokesperson Anene Sewuese Catherine confirmed two attacks in the area but said her office had received 'no report of 20 people' killed. She said that one raid resulted in the death of a policeman who had 'repelled an attack' and that 'three dead bodies were discovered'. The attacks in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt often take on a religious or ethnic dimension. Benue has been one of the states hit hardest by such violence between nomadic herders and farmers who blame herders for destroying farmland with their cattle grazing.
Al Arabiya
27-05-2025
- General
- Al Arabiya
At least 42 killed in weekend attacks in Nigeria's Benue state: Local official
At least 42 people were shot dead by suspected herders in a series of weekend attacks across Gwer West district in Nigeria's central Benue state, a local official said on Tuesday. Thirty-two bodies were recovered from Sunday's assaults on the Ahume and Aondona villages, while 10 more were killed in a separate attack on the villages of Tyolaha and Tse-Ubiam on Saturday, said Victor Omnin, chairman of the Gwer West local government. 'It's a pathetic situation. As we speak, we are still recovering corpses,' Omnin told journalists. Benue is in Nigeria's Middle Belt, a region where the majority Muslim North meets the largely Christian South. The region faces competition over land use, with conflicts between herders, who seek grazing land for their cattle, and farmers, who need arable land for cultivation. These tensions are often worsened by overlapping ethnic and religious divisions. Benue Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia's office said a Catholic priest was also shot in the area by the assailants, and is in critical but stable condition.
Jordan Times
12-05-2025
- Jordan Times
Gunmen kill 23 in Nigeria's central region — Red Cross official
By AFP - May 12,2025 - Last updated at May 12,2025 Gunmen killed 23 people in four separate attacks in central Nigeria's Benue state, a Red Cross official said Sunday, the latest flare-up of unrest in the region (AFP photo) JOS, NIGERIA — Gunmen killed 23 people in four separate attacks in central Nigeria's Benue state, a Red Cross official said Sunday, the latest flare-up of unrest in the region. The attacks happened Saturday night in four villages. Clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farmers over land use are common in central Nigeria. "Reports from the field have confirmed the killings of at least 23 people from different attacks," Red Cross secretary in Benue state Anthony Abah told AFP. Eight people were killed in Ukum, nine in nearby Logo, three each in Guma and Kwande, he said, citing data from the organisation's field disaster officers. Several others were wounded, he added. A police spokeswoman said she was unaware of the attacks. Cephas Kangeh, a retired general manager with a state electricity company who recently relocated to his home village near one of the affected areas told AFP he had heard of three killings, including a couple ambushed while riding a motorcycle which "was taken away by the herdsmen". Chinese operators are mining gold in the area, he said. "The attacks did not take place near the mining sites," said Kangeh. "However, one is puzzled as to why indigenous people are always attacked, maimed... yet there has never been a single case of attack on the Chinese miners who are operating in these areas." Some of the latest attacks were staged in areas previously targeted by attacks slightly over a month ago, which left at least 56 dead. With many herders belonging to the Muslim Fulani ethnic group, and many farmers Christian, the attacks in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt often take on a religious or ethnic dimension. Two attacks by unidentified gunmen earlier in April in neighbouring Plateau state left more than 100 people dead. Across the wider Middle Belt, including in Benue, land used by farmers and herders is coming under stress from climate change and human expansion, sparking deadly competition for increasingly limited space.
