Latest news with #MiddleBelt
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Charred bodies, shattered lives after gunmen kill 100 in Nigeria
YELWATA, Nigeria, June 17 (Reuters) - The gunmen attacked after dark and chased farmer Fidelis Adidi away from the central Nigerian village of Yelwata. The next morning he returned to find the charred remains of one of his two wives and four of his children. They had been living in a room he had rented in the market, in an attempt to keep them safe from a wave of clashes between cattle herders and farmers in the country's Middle Belt region. His second wife and another child were badly wounded in the assault that began on Friday night and, according to Amnesty International, killed around 100 people in the town in Benue region. "My body is weak and my heart keeps racing," the 37-year-old told Reuters as he stood outside the room, surveying the damage. "I lost five of my family members." In another room in the market, bodies lay burned beyond recognition next to blackened piles of food and farm equipment. Authorities have struggled to contain the violence that has simmered for years, fuelled by competition over land as well as ethnic and religious divisions. President Bola Tinubu - who called the recent upsurge in attacks "depressing" on Monday - is due to visit Benue on Wednesday, his first visit there since coming to office two years ago. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said it was working with aid agencies to help at least 3,000 people displaced by the violence in a territory where the majority Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south. Market trader Talatu Agauta, who is pregnant with her second child, fled when the attackers came on Friday night and took refuge in the state capital Markudi. She came back over the weekend to find 40 bags of her rice had been burned. A devastating blow, but not enough to drive her from her home. "I came back and even if I die here, I don't mind," she said.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Benue killings: What you need to know about Nigeria's herder-farmer conflict
Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu has ordered security agencies to bring an end to a wave of killings in the central Benue is believed that more than 200 people have died in a series of attacks across various communities in the last few days described the killings as "inhuman and anti-progress". He was speaking after hundreds stormed the streets of the state capital Makurdi to protest against the say thousands have been forced to flee their homes. How serious is the violence in Benue? This not a new problem but it has escalated analyst Kabir Adamu, head of Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, told the BBC that according to their database, 1,043 people were killed in Benue between May 2023 and May state has been at the centre of a violent conflict between herders and farmers that has led to the killing of thousands of civilians and many members of the security forces in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt going back many years. Herders, mostly from the Fulani ethnic group, move around to find food for their cattle, bringing them into conflict with the owners of farms, who say the cattle trample their crops and pollute water sources. Some of them are armed with powerful guns, saying they need to protect themselves from cattle the farmers often blame the Fulanis for the violence, one of the community's leaders, Baba Othman Ngelzarma, told the BBC that his people were not behind the killings in Benue.'Our people are not behind the Benue killings, we know there are some unresolved issues in Benue which have been there for some time.'But we have never allowed any of our people to attack or kill others,' he authorities have not blamed any group but it is safe to assume that there are lots of victims on both sides, as any attack usually leads to revenge and then a cycle of violence. What is behind the violence? The ongoing insecurity in Benue State is a complex issue stemming from a mix of economic, environmental, socio-political, and governance factors."Environmental degradation, notably climate change-induced desertification and irregular rainfall patterns in Nigeria's northern regions, plays a critical role," says analyst Mr Adamu."These pressures compel herders to migrate southward... including Benue State, where resources are already strained."Rapid population growth in these areas further intensifies the competition for limited land and water, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of environmental stress, migration, and conflict escalation," he is an additional factor as the Fulanis are mostly Muslim while the farming communities in Benue are also blame the authorities for not providing more security or coming up with policies that address the economic needs of both communities. What is the government doing about the conflict? Both the state and national governments have tried various policies over the years but none have proved successful Adamu says a federal joint task force was launched in 2018 and then another one last month, the Forest Guards."This national system aims to recruit armed operatives to secure forest reserves from terrorists and criminals."Public affairs analyst Sam Philip, who lives in Makurdi, says the conflict has not been getting the attention it deserves for years, with the government focusing on other security crises like the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east, the demand for secession in parts of the south-east and a wave of kidnapping for ransom in the north-west."I feel this issue has been ignored for long in terms of real attention from the government and that is why things continue to escalate," he noted. How can it be resolved? Mr Adamu says any solution needs to have both security and economic elements."One way of having lasting peace in Benue is through sustained and adaptive security presence, what it means is to deploy more tactical and intelligence-based special forces to Benue State, ensuring their presence is sustained and adaptable to shifting also says that that the government needs to provide grazing land for the herders so they don't come into conflict with farmers."The aim should be to ensure it is equitable and provides viable, sustainable alternatives for pastoralists," he President Muhammadu Buhari did come up with such a plan, however this was rejected by states in the south, who saw it as a way of giving the Fulanis a share of their land. More BBC stories on Nigeria: At least 45 killed in central Nigeria raidDisbelief as Nigeria urges prayer to end food shortagesCulture and colour come out in praise of a Nigerian king Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Times of Oman
6 days ago
- Politics
- Times of Oman
Nigeria: Gunmen kill at least 100 in Benue state
Abuja: Gunmen killed at least 100 people in the Yelewata village in Nigeria's Benue state late on Friday, Amnesty International Nigeria said. "Many people are still injured and left without adequate medical care. Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms," the human rights organization said in a social media post. Police spokesperson Udeme Edet from Benue confirmed the attack but did not specify the death toll. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack. Governor of Benue state Hyacinth Alia sent a delegation to Yelewata to provide support to the relatives of the victims. Visuals circulated on social media showed burnt houses and corpses. Benue state lies in Nigeria's Middle Belt, in the center of the Muslim-majority north and the Christian-majority south. The region often sees violence over access to land and water resources between farmers and herders, worsened by ethnic and religious tensions. Violence in the region has claimed 500 lives since 2019, and displaced thousands of others, as per data by Nigerian geopolitcal research consultancy SBM Intelligence. Last month, gunmen believed to be herders killed at least 20 in the Gwer West district in Benue. In April, 40 were killed in in the nearby state of Plateau.
Reuters
6 days ago
- Reuters
Gunmen kill at least 100 people in Nigeria's Benue state, Amnesty International says
June 14 (Reuters) - At least 100 people have been killed in an attack by gunmen on a village in Nigeria's central Benue state, Amnesty International Nigeria said Saturday. The attack took place from late Friday into the early hours of Saturday in the village of Yelewata, the group said in a post on social media platform X. "Many people are still injured and left without adequate medical care. Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms," the post added. 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. Last month, 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. Since 2019, the clashes have claimed more than 500 lives in the region and forced 2.2 million to leave their homes, according to research firm SBM Intelligence.
Free Malaysia Today
02-06-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Gunmen kill 25 in restive central Nigeria
Benue has been one of the states hit hardest by violence between nomadic herders and farmers. (AFP pic) JOS : Gunmen over the weekend killed 25 people in two attacks across north-central Nigeria's Benue state, local authorities told AFP today, the latest violence in a region known for deadly land disputes and reprisals. Attackers killed 14 people yesterday in the community of Ankpali, said Adam Ochega, chairman of the Apa local government council, warning that 'there are still some threats here and there'. Muslim ethnic Fulani nomadic herders have long clashed with settled farmers, many of whom are Christian, in Benue over access to land and resources. In a recent report, Amnesty International tallied 6,896 people killed over the last two years in Benue, part of Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt, a mixed-religious region where such disputes often take on a sectarian dimension. A police spokesman confirmed the attack but did not provide a toll. In a similar attack yesterday evening on Naka village, of Gwer West local government area, 11 people were killed by what authorities said were suspected Fulani militias. 'So far we have recovered 11 dead bodies and five people are confirmed injured,' Gwer West council chairman Ormin Victor told AFP. Last month, 44 people were killed in a span of four days in Gwer West. Motives for the violence in that attack were not clear, but Victor blamed the 'coordinated attacks' on Fulani cattle herders. Herders across the region meanwhile say they are also the victims of deadly attacks by farmers, land grabs and cattle poisonings. Land used by farmers and herders in central Nigeria is coming under stress from climate change and human expansion, sparking deadly competition for increasingly limited space. Benue has been one of the states hit hardest by such violence between nomadic herders and farmers who blame herdsmen for destroying farmland with their cattle grazing. When violence flares, weak policing all but guarantees indiscriminate reprisal attacks, which often occur across communal lines. A spate of attacks across Benue and neighbouring Plateau state left more than 150 people dead in April alone. Land grabbing, political and economic tensions between local 'indigenes' and those considered outsiders, as well as an influx of hardline Muslim and Christian preachers, have heightened divisions in Plateau state in recent decades.
