At least five people were killed in a fresh attack on the Udeku Maav-Ya community in Kwande local government area of Benue state, Nigeria, according to Daily Post. Local officials said the victims were farmers who were working on their land when the assault began, and that security personnel later repelled the attackers.
The report said the attack happened on Tuesday afternoon, around 4 p.m., when armed men allegedly opened fire as farmers were harvesting yams and bambara nuts. Akerigba Lawrence, a former supervisory councillor in the area, said the community was caught by surprise. He named three of the dead as Tyozua Gyuse, Gbaga Gyuse and Tersuur Ijighka, while the identities of two others had not yet been confirmed.
Lawrence said repeated assaults in the area had left residents living in fear. He described a pattern of early-morning gunfire, blocked access to riverbanks, and destruction of crops, houses and economic trees. He also said schools, churches and markets had been forced to close. Those claims point to more than a single violent incident: they suggest a place where normal civilian life has been disrupted by repeated insecurity.
Tersua Yarkwan, chairman of Kwande local government area and head of the Benue State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, also verified the attack. He said it came from a border community near Cameroon and that security personnel eventually drove the attackers away. Yarkwan warned that continued attacks could threaten local food production during the harvest season, and he called for a stronger government security presence along the border.
The report also noted that attempts to reach the Benue State Police Command were unsuccessful at the time of reporting. That absence of immediate official confirmation does not erase the local accounts, but it does leave some basic details unresolved, including the full identity of the victims and whether the attackers were part of a larger armed group operating across the border region.
Still, the core facts are clear enough. Five people were killed. They were attacked while farming. Local leaders say the violence is recurrent and is pushing communities toward fear, school closures and economic damage. In a part of Nigeria already familiar with clashes between farming and herding communities, the latest deaths add to the pressure on authorities to show that they can protect rural settlements and keep harvest-time violence from becoming routine.
For residents of Kwande, the question is no longer whether another attack might come. It is whether the state can prevent the next one.
