(16 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yelewata, Benue State, Nigeria – 16 June 2025
1. Mid of Benue killing survivor crying
2. Various of damage after attack
3. Mid of security presence in Yelewata
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Nlan, witness:
"The Fulani herdsmen came in around the Yeleweta East, started firing gunshots. They fired for almost five hours; they met a stiff resistance here from the police. Immediately when they met the resistance, they moved towards Yelewata New Market; there they slaughtered more than 100 persons. The incidents lasted for more than five hours. They burnt some of our community members in stores there; there are some stores that are housing more than 50 persons. All were burnt down. People slaughtered here, others burnt to ashes."
5. Various of damaged buildings
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Maxwell Ayua, witness:
"My family members affected, they are five in numbers. My wife’s brother and four children, all killed in the market area."
7. Mid of security
8. Mid of burnt motorcycle
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Kayode Egbetokun, Nigeria Police Force Inspector General:
"This attack on the peaceful Yelewata community is one attack too many. It’s not just an attack on the people of Benue state, it is an attack on the entire nation, and we are not going to accept it. The people of this community are not alone. We are with them; the entire Nigerian communities are with them. A day will come when these bandits will come to operate as they used to, and they will never return. That day is drawing nearer."
10. Mid of burnt motorcycle
11. Mid of burnt house
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Hyacinth Alia, Benue State Governor:
"This is a killing that’s uncalled for. Whatever thing it is, it’s quite unfortunate that this kind of a carnage, this kind of killing persists."
13. Mid of damaged building
14. Various of Yelewata residents trying to evacuate
STORYLINE:
The death toll from an attack by gunmen over the weekend in north-central Nigeria has climbed to 150, survivors said Monday as the villagers were still digging through burned homes, counting their dead and looking for dozens of people still missing.
Assailants stormed Benue state’s Yelewata community late on Friday night, opening fire on villagers who were asleep and setting their homes ablaze, survivors and the local farmers union said.
Many of those killed were sheltering in a local market after fleeing violence in other parts of the state.
Matthew Nlan said the shootings "lasted for more than five hours."
"They burnt some of our community members in stores there; there are some stores that are housing more than 50 persons," he said. "All were burnt down. People slaughtered here, others burnt to ashes."
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killings, but such attacks are common in Nigeria’s northern region where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water.
The prolonged conflict has become deadlier in recent years, with authorities and analysts warning that more herdsmen are taking up arms.
The farmers accuse the herders, mostly of Fulani origin, of grazing their livestock on their farms and destroying their produce.
The herders insist that the lands are grazing routes that were first backed by law in 1965, five years after the country gained its independence.
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