IN what has now turned into long-running violence, many villages in Benue have been caught in a deadly cycle of violence, with families torn apart, homes reduced to rubbles, and communities forced to flee. In this report, The ICIR looks at the deadly wave of violence that has swept through the State
On the early hours of Friday, April 18, 2025, a day to commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, residents of Tse Shawa, a small town in Ukum Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State were still at their homes, preparing to go to farm or market when they were attacked by gunmen. They had earlier heard news about the attacks in some of the neighbouring villages and were prepared to flee in the event of such attacks on their village.
By 9 a.m., armed men descended on the village wielding sophisticated weapons. They fired indiscriminately at the villagers. During the attack at least 11 people were confirmed dead. Among them were two sons of Zumwua Shawa who had barely survived the attack. As soon as she heard that both of them had been killed, she collapsed and eventually died.
Her sons. Ahumbe and Chieryol, were killed in their rooms during the attack, after which they were macheted by the gunmen.
Simon Udeti, a close relative of the victims, said he, his wife, and other members of the household escaped through the bush and walked to Afia in Tsaav ward, Ukum LGA.
“They just came in and started shooting at us like wild animals. My two brothers-in-law, Ahumbe and Chieryol, were shot dead right there in their rooms,” he recalled.
“When we broke the tragic news to my mother-in-law, she couldn’t take it,” Simon said, adding that, “She died right there from the shock.”
The familyquickly buried the two siblings, afraid the attackers might return. While retrieving the bodies, Simon said they discovered five more victims nearby.
From Thursday April 17, until early April 19, 2025, the gunmen, believed by the residents to be Fulani (due to the language they speak and their appearances), conducted a systematic village by village attack to remove them from their homes, including killing of residents in both Logo and Ukum LGAs.
The attack began on Thursday afternoon in the Gbagir axis of Ukum and continued in phases and coordination for at least three days, peaking on Friday. The killing that Udeti survived was just one in a deluge of atrocities that the gunmen had carried out in the areas in the last few years.
On the same day in Tyuluv village, the sun had barely risen, and the people were busy preparing for the day that would include farm work and church services to mark Easter weekend. Around 9 a.m., Sarah Shiaondo, a 62-year-old, noticed unfamiliar men entering the village. She noted that the strangers wore face masks before they started attacking the villagers.
“Having sensed this we started finding a way to raise alarm,” she narrated, adding that, “they laid ambush on paths to farms where we could run for safety.”
During the ensuing attack, Shiaondo lost two of her children and five stepchildren.
“Attempts to escape through the paths were abortive as they already laid barricades. “Two of my children of about thirty-two and thirty-four were killed including five of my stepchildren,” she narrated.
The ICIR could not independently verify the total number of casualties, as there are conflicting figures ranging from 100 to 200 deaths in the affected villages in Ukum.
The village heads said it was hard to confirm the actual number as of press time as many people were believed to still be in the bush lying lifeless. Afia village head representative, Evern Ngutor said the number presented on social media by people and the government did not represent the actual casualties as bodies of the deceased were still being recovered almost every day.
Mourning four siblings
Robert Tokpo sat quietly in a front of a modest house in Afia, surrounded by a few surviving relatives and neighbours. He had barely spoken since the Friday attack in which he lost four siblings.
On Thursday evening, April 17, Tokpo and his brothers were working on their farm when he noticed some men approaching. They were gunmen, whom he said killed his two siblings.
“It was around 5 p.m., I saw them from a distance. They didn’t look like our people. I immediately hid in the bush and tried to call my brothers’ attention to them. But my brothers were still working, unaware.”
By the time they realised what was happening, it was too late. They caught them and started cutting them with machetes. I watched helplessly as they were butchered on our farm,” he told The ICIR.
His brothers were among those ambushed as the gunmen moved through the forests from Ukum to Logo on Thursday night. Ukum and Logo are neighbouring LGAs in Benue State that share a common boundary that links their communities. The ICIR gathered that at least 16 people were ambushed and killed that night, as the attackers left a trail of blood in their march.
But the horror didn’t end there for Tokpo.
“The next morning, two more of my brothers were coming back from church after the Easter activities. They ran into some gunmen on their way home. They were also killed,” he added.
All four of Tokpo’s brothers were buried together the following Monday. “We buried them in the morning,” he said, adding, “That same attack claimed six lives in my immediate village. In the entire Tsaav community, more than seventy people were killed.”
Living in constant fear
Thirty-nine-year-old Mseer Boniface Kazever, a resident of Anyinlamo, now finds herself clinging to survival with her 10 children in a small room allocated to her by a pastor in Anyin, after fleeing a violent attack on her community.
“Since the day of the Fulani attack, I’ve been here with my children. My husband had to travel to Taraba State in search of food. We left everything behind, our home, just to stay alive.”
Kazever recalled the evening in April as one that changed their lives. Her community was hit hard in the wave of attacks that swept across villages in Logo and Ukum. According to her, many of her neighbours were murdered in their sleep, with no chance for the victims to flee or fight back.
“Our neighbours were killed. Only God can tell how we were spared. Our huts were not difficult for them to get in, they would have quietly broken the door and killed us silently,” she said.
“We used to sleep in the Pastor’s house since the eve of Easter when Fulani(gunmen) did a massive killing in Logo here,” she said.
Kazever’s story mirrors the growing situation among many villagers in Anyinlamo and nearby communities. Some of the villagers now live a life split in two. By day, they return to what’s left of their homes and farms. By night, they flee to Ugba, the headquarters of Logo LGA to seek safety in churches, IDP camps, or the homes of pastors with ‘iron doors.’
The Benue insecurity
The recent wave of violence that swept through Logo and Ukum LGAs in April and May was only the latest in a long series of attacks that have devastated communities across Benue State.
The state has experienced recurring cycles of violence and insecurity in recent years. It has been plagued by herder-farmer conflicts, banditry, and kidnapping, leading to a significant decline in the standard of living of its residents. Often times farming communities are repeatedly targeted by gunmen believed to be herders, leaving a trail of destruction, displacement, and trauma.
In Logo, Ukum, Gwer West, Guma, and other conflict-prone areas, residents said they have lost count of the number of attacks over the years. Some entire villages have been razed, and those who once thrived on subsistence farming now depend on aid or live in IDP camps with no clear path to reintegration with their homes.
In 2024, Amnesty International stated that about 2,600 persons, mostly women and children, were killed following attacks on 50 Benue communities between January 2023 and February 2024.
The organisation revealed that armed attacks posed ongoing security threats in 18 out of the 23 local government areas in Benue State. It further stated that, as of the last assessment in March 2023, a total of 489,245 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were being housed across camps and host communities in the state.
However, since then, there have been numerous reported deaths from a series of coordinated attacks.
During the recent attacks on the eve of Good Friday and the following day, over 65 residents were reportedly killed by marauders who unleashed mayhem on communities in Ukum and Logo Local Government Areas of the state, according to official data.
However, local residents contend that the official figures fall short of the true toll, as more bodies have continued to be discovered even weeks after the massacre.
Ambushed on the way to farm
Just weeks before the heartbreaking attack, Aondonengen Ushade, survived a gunshot attack from gunmen ravaging Anyin, in Logo LGA.
On April 1, Ushade, a young farmer heading to his farm, was riding a motorcycle alongside four others when he was shot by unknown assailants. Ushade sat on the motorcycle’s fuel tank along with the the rider and three passengers behind.
While on their way to the farm, two gunmen laid ambush for them. They pointed guns at them to stop but did not stop as they believe that will be more dangerous. Ushade recalled how the men opened fire on them thereafter. During that incident, two bullets hit him—one lodged in his abdomen, the other in his thigh.
Ushade said his survival was a miracle. After being hit by the bullets, he explained that he had to endure the pain till they were out of the danger zone before alerting his colleagues of his condition.
“I was shot in the stomach, and another bullet hit my thigh. But I did not tell others because the gunmen were still chasing us. By the time we got out of the danger and wanted to inform them, I was already collapsing,” he explained.
During The ICIR’s visit to Logo LGA, locals had strongly advised this reporter against going to Anyinlamo village, describing it as a hotspot for gunmen attacks.
Although this reporter heeded to their advice and decided not to visit, during the journey back to Makurdi, the local taxi driver had to pass through the road leading to the village and true to their words, there were gunshot heard in the village around 4 p.m.
The scene was one with many villagers on the road running for safety. They were in their numbers heading towards the police station in Anyinlamo to find safety, while others decided to move in the other direction of the gunshot.
The ICIR observed several young men armed in their local guns running towards the direction of which the attackers were firing shots to resist any attempts of attacking their village. Not long after soldiers were sighted moving in the same direction.
“This is the life they live here. Every day, they take arms to defend their homes,” said Fred Hule, who is resident in the State “The area is the most prone to insecurity and they are always on the run nearly every day. The gunmen moved from one village to another, killing the locals.”
More victims narrate ordeal
At 84, Zakin Mbaterem is no stranger to the insecurity that has befallen his hometown, Anyin but nothing could have prepared him for the horror that unfolded on April 17.
Mbaterem explained that the evening was supposed to be a quiet one for him and members of his family as they prepared for Easter celebration. Instead, it turned into a bloodletting night. That night, Mbaterem sat with his family, including his son Bem, who had just turned 40 when the gunmen attacked Anyin.
During the attack, his son was killed, alongside 10 others. “My son Bem just came back from Abuja for holiday, and he was killed a day after his arrival by the gunmen. They shot him in front of the house, and I barely escaped death,” he said.
For 65-year-old Lydia Ate, the memory of that night still feels like a nightmare she can’t wake up from.
It was April 17. The gunmen stormed their neighbourhood, shooting everyone in sight. Lydia was outside the house when the incident started, but her husband, an 80-year-old man, was taking an afternoon nap inside his room.
He had no idea what was coming.
“I tried to raise the alarm before taking to my heels. I called his name, knocked on the door,” she said, “but before he could even get up properly, it was already too late.”
“They just shot him right there while he was still struggling with his underwear,” she added.
Lydia said she survived by sheer luck. She had hidden behind some banana trees, just a few steps from their house as the attackers ransacked the place.
‘No one came to help us’
The villages of Ukum and Logo LGAs have suffered repeated attacks in recent years. Residents, who spoke to The ICIR stated that they have reported threats and suspicious movements to local authorities in the past, but little has changed.
Sarah Shiaondo, who escaped from Tyuluv, said it was not the first time they had received reports of attacks in nearby villages, but they didn’t expect the violence would be so brutal.
“We have been shouting, begging the government to intervene,” she said adding, “But it’s always the same; they come after the damage is done.”
Sarah and many others now live in fear that the next attack could happen wherever they find temporary shelter.
Zakin Mbaterem, the district head of Anyin, also stated that they had repeatedly written to the security operatives, including the police and the civil defence in their town and in the local government headquarters to seek help to the attacks that have displaced thousands of residents but to no avail.
While he noted that the operatives in the town often try to resist or confront the gunmen, they are always overwhelmed with the number of the armed men attacking the villages.
Killers of Benue residents are foreigners – Gov Alia
Contrary to claims by residents who spoke with The ICIR that the attackers behind the recent wave of killings in Benue State are Fulani, Governor Hyacinth Alia has said the assailants are foreigners speaking unfamiliar dialects.
Alia made this claim on Tuesday, April 22, during an interview on Politics Today, a programme aired on Channels Television.
Reacting to the recent attacks, particularly those in April, Alia stated that residents have reported hearing dialects not associated with local communities, suggesting that the attackers are foreign elements.
“Let’s have the narrative very correct. We know Nigerians—by our ethnicities, we can identify a Fulani man, a Yoruba man, a Hausa man—we know them,” Alia said.
“Even the regular traditional herders, we know them. They work with cows, herding them with sticks.
“But these folks [the attackers] are coming in fully armed with AK-47s and 49s. They do not bear the Nigerian look. They don’t speak like we do. Even the Hausa they speak is one sort of Hausa,” he said.
According to him, the assailants arrive heavily armed with sophisticated weapons like AK-47s and 49s, unlike traditional herders who he said move with sticks.
“It’s not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak. So it is with the Fulani they speak. There is a trend in the language they speak, and some of our people who understand what they speak give it names.
“They say they are Malians and different from our people. But they are not Nigerians—believe it,” he added.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M