At least 100 people were killed in a gun attack on Yelewata, a village in Nigeria’s north-central Benue state, according to Amnesty International Nigeria. The rights group said the attack took place late Friday into the early hours of Saturday in the Guma area, and that many families were trapped and burned inside their bedrooms.
Amnesty said dozens of people were still missing and hundreds were injured or without adequate medical care. Social-media images and videos shared after the attack showed burnt houses and bodies in the aftermath, though the independent verification of those images was not included in the AP report. Police spokesperson Udeme Edet confirmed that an attack had taken place in Yelewata but did not give a casualty number in the source material.
The violence fits a pattern that has made Benue one of Nigeria’s most vulnerable states. Deadly attacks in the north-central region often involve clashes between herders and farmers over land and water, with each side accusing the other of violence and trespass. The AP report says the dispute over grazing routes and farmland remains a recurring source of bloodshed even as the toll rises.
The scale of the Yelewata attack stands out because of the way victims were caught. Amnesty said people were locked in their homes and burned, a detail that suggests attackers were targeting sleeping residents rather than meeting armed resistance in open conflict. That makes the incident look less like a brief confrontation and more like a deliberate mass-casualty assault.
Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia sent a delegation to the community to support families, and the AP report notes that the state was still trying to account for the missing and treat the wounded. The source also points to recent violence in neighbouring states, including an attack in Plateau in April and another in Benue last month, showing that the region’s insecurity remains active.
What remains unresolved is who carried out the killings. The report says it was unclear which gunmen were responsible. Even so, the combination of missing people, burned homes and a body count that crossed 100 makes Yelewata one of the deadliest attacks in the area in recent memory.
The attack is also a reminder that mass-casualty violence in north-central Nigeria often leaves a second emergency behind it: displacement, hospital overload and uncertainty about who is missing. In that sense, the death toll is only the start of the crisis. The longer work is identifying victims, treating survivors and understanding how to prevent a repeat.
