Survivors of the recent Yelwata attack have been counting their losses and are appealing to both the federal government and the Benue State government for urgent assistance to enable them return to their homes.
Suspected herdsmen militia on June 13, 2025 carried out a deadly pre-dawn raid on the Benue community, leaving scores dead, hundreds wounded, and several others homeless. Community sources give the human casualty figures as between 200 and 300 victims, but government sources give a lower figure.
Displaced by the violent incursion, many of the victims now languish in overcrowded and poorly equipped IDP camps, where food, water, and medical care are in short supply. The victims decry the inhumane living conditions and express fears of disease and further trauma, especially for women and children.
LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that at a makeshift camp nearby, where displaced villagers now seek shelter, the mood is both mournful and angry.
With tear-filled eyes and voices heavy with grief, survivors of the brutal Yelwata killings now seeking refuge at the Makurdi International Market have relived the night their community was attacked.
As they mourn the loss of loved ones and homes, they are calling on the federal government to urgently establish security posts along the Benue–Nasarawa border to stop the unending cycle of bloodshed in farming communities.
Yelwata Monarch Seeks Security Beef-Up on Benue–Nasarawa Border
The traditional ruler of Yelwata, Chief Moses Aondover, has lamented their fate.
“We are tired of burying our children. We are not asking for too much. We are asking for the most basic of human rights—to live in safety. We are appealing to the Benue State Government and the international community to take urgent action. Our demand is clear: establish a permanent security outpost in Yelwata to prevent further attacks.
“This cannot continue,” insists Aondover. “How many more times? Must we be wiped out before someone acts? We need military presence. We need justice. We need to know our lives matter.”
As we speak, the air is thick with silence in Yelwata. Not the peaceful kind, but the heavy, suffocating stillness that follows unimaginable horror. Homes once filled with laughter and the smell of fresh cassava now lie in ruins, charred and empty.
“Today, a few of us (survivors), gaunt and grief-stricken, gather beneath trees, with our eyes darting between the road at the various camps housing us and the forest, still unsure where danger might come from next.
“This is not the first time Yelwata, our small agrarian community in Benue State, has faced violence. But this attack was the deadliest.”
Yelwata People Are Still Bleeding
“You want to know about our story? Okay. In the darkness of night, armed assailants descended, killing indiscriminately. Over 200 lives were lost, most of them women and children. In fact, entire families were wiped out. Now, Yelwata, my community, bleeds not just from the loss of life, but from the silence of those meant to protect it.”
Other survivors of the Yelwata massacre, now taking refuge at the Makurdi International Market, have appealed to the federal government to establish permanent security outposts along the Benue–Nasarawa border. They revealed that attackers often launch assaults on farming communities in Benue State, then escape back across the border into Nasarawa.
According to them, only well-positioned security presence at these border points can deter and ultimately end the repeated attacks on their villages.
Ghost Town In Waiting
More than half of Yelwata residents have fled. Farmlands are abandoned. Schools are closed. Children, now orphans, wander without guidance. Survivors live with the constant fear of a repeat attack.
An Urgent Call
According to Chief Moses Aondover, “This is more than a local issue; it is a humanitarian crisis. The people of Yelwata are calling on Governor Hyacinth Alia to prioritise the deployment of a permanent military post here.
“We are also calling on the federal government to investigate the attack and hold the perpetrators accountable. We beg international bodies and NGOs to provide immediate aid and advocate for human rights protections in Nigeria’s conflict zones.”
“I Heard My Children Cry, Then I Heard Them No More”
Mariam Terkimbi, 36, who lost her husband and two sons in the massacre, said in her trembling voice, “They came like shadows. I hid in the bush with my baby. I heard my children cry, and then I heard them no more.
“If we are forgotten now, the next time they come, there will be no one left to tell our story,” says Mariam.
Facing Snakes in the Bush Safer Than Sleeping at Home
Joseph Iorliam, a farmer whose wife was killed while fetching water, was quoted as saying, “We don’t even have time to mourn our dead. We sleep in the bush. Every night. With snakes. With hunger. But it is safer than sleeping in our homes.”
All around the chief, survivors echoed the same heartbreak: children shot in their sleep; elders slaughtered in their compounds; young men cut down as they tried to defend their homes with farm tools.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP Sunday, more of the survivors of the bloody attack shared their harrowing experiences, unanimously appealing to the federal government to establish permanent security posts in border communities between Benue and Nasarawa States. They said armed herdsmen continue to infiltrate their villages through these border routes, launch deadly assaults, and then retreat across the state line without being apprehended.
Return Us Home, Secure Us to Rebuild Our Lives
Other survivors also urged the international community to support the Benue State government in helping them return to their ancestral homes, where farming activities were in full swing before the devastating attack. They stressed that rather than keeping them in camps and feeding them, it would be more sustainable for the federal government and international partners to secure their communities so they can rebuild their lives and resume farming.
Iorlumun Tizahe said, “The basic thing the people need now is security of lives and property—to go back to their farms without fear. We are mourning almost 300 lives lost. Some families are completely wiped out. Mothers who hid their children in the dark are now the only survivors of their families.”
We Raised the Alarm for Years But No One Listened
Ashiakaa Jeyol told our correspondent:
“These attackers sneak in through the Nasarawa borders, strike, and vanish. I lost my nanny and two children. They were burnt beyond recognition. My wife and I survived because we were in a neighbouring community weeding. We’ve raised alarms for years, but no one listened. The Nasarawa government always denies, and that’s where it ends.
“If our calls to build security posts at border communities had been taken seriously, these relentless attacks, destruction of farms, and the occupation of our ancestral land could have ended long ago.
“By God’s grace, some of my family survived, but we lost many. The attackers first came to our area but fled due to teargas from a nearby security checkpoint. They then went to Yelwata market, where many displaced people were sleeping, set them ablaze, and escaped back to Nasarawa.”
Life means nothing anymore – Widow
A widow with eight children, said Magdalene Akile said, “I lost my husband, three siblings, and three of their friends who came to help us farm. They were burnt beyond recognition. I couldn’t even identify my husband. To me, life has no meaning anymore.
“We moved from Makurdi to Yelwata when life became unbearable after my husband retired without pension or gratuity. Farming gave us hope. We could feed ourselves, pay school fees, and support the children. Some of them stayed back in Makurdi, and we’d visit, bring them food and money.
“I’m deeply traumatised. I already had an ulcer and now I’ve been diagnosed with hypertension. I couldn’t sleep last night, and now I’m so weak I need support to stand as I wait for my medication.”
Recounting how she survived the attack, Magdalene recalled that after returning from the farm at about 4pm, a group of five men in army uniforms arrived on motorcycles. They moved around the market suspiciously. Though they left briefly, her instincts told her they weren’t real soldiers. She warned her husband and brothers, but they dismissed her concerns.
She insisted again and suggested they all sleep in Kadarko for safety, but only she, her daughter, and her brother’s wife agreed. That night, they heard news of an attack on Yelwata market. They prayed for safety, but the next day they discovered that everyone they left behind had been killed, hacked so badly they couldn’t even recognise the bodies.
Another survivor, 17-year-old Mlumun Friday, who is eight months pregnant, lost her husband, Friday, in the Yelwata attack.
She tearfully recounted that she and her mother-in-law had gone to Udei (another village) to weed their groundnut and millet farms. On the fourth night, they heard about the attack in Yelwata. Mlumun tried calling her husband, but his phone was off. Her mother-in-law went to find out what happened, and later a motorcycle came to pick Mlumun up.
“I can’t describe what I saw on the ground… but they said that was where he slept with his brother,” she said in tears. “I am yet to believe Friday is dead. I am giving birth next month; where will I start from?”
Friday’s distraught father, Akpenwuan, said he lost two sons, Friday and Tersoo, who had been sleeping in the same room.
“What we saw were the ashes of their remains,” he said, explaining that although Friday was married, his younger brother was not.
“Look at his wife, she is just 17 and this is her first pregnancy. I’m doing everything to support her so she can deliver safely.”
He also revealed the financial devastation: “I stored yam, maize, rice, and guinea corn worth over N2 million, but everything was burned—along with people sleeping inside.”
Though he still has three children and his elderly father and wife alive, he added, “I feel like a living corpse. The sons we lost were the ones farming and feeding us.”
He called for security posts along the Nasarawa-Benue border, where he says the attackers come from.
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