At least 23 people were killed in a series of coordinated night-time assaults across four villages in Nigeria’s Benue state on Saturday, in what marks another deadly chapter in the region’s ongoing conflict between farming and herding communities.
The attacks, which unfolded in the communities of Ukum, Logo, Guma, and Kwande, were confirmed by the Nigerian Red Cross on Sunday. According to Anthony Abah, the organisation’s secretary in Benue, the fatalities included nine in Logo, eight in Ukum, and three each in Guma and Kwande. Several others sustained injuries, though precise numbers remain unverified.
The Nigerian police have yet to issue a statement on the incidents.
Saturday’s attacks targeted areas that had barely begun to recover from earlier violence. In April, similar raids in the same region claimed over 50 lives. The pattern of recurring assaults has raised alarm among humanitarian organisations and local leaders, many of whom say government response has been slow and inadequate.
Benue sits in Nigeria’s central belt, a region long plagued by land-related clashes between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers. Climate stress, expanding settlements, and diminishing arable land have intensified these disputes, often erupting into violent confrontations.
The violence in Benue comes on the heels of two separate attacks in neighbouring Plateau state last month, where over 100 people were killed in yet another grim reminder of the scale of insecurity across central Nigeria.
Communities affected by the latest violence are calling for stronger security presence and lasting policy solutions. Meanwhile, aid groups continue to work in increasingly dangerous conditions, warning that without intervention, the crisis could deepen further.