At least 100 people have been killed in an attack by gunmen on a village in Nigeria’s central Benue state, Amnesty International Nigeria said Saturday.
The attack took place from late Friday into the early hours of Saturday in the village of Yelewata, the group said in a post on social media platform X.
“Many people are still missing…dozens injured and left without adequate medical care. Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms,” the post added.
Benue is in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a region where the majority Muslim North meets the largely Christian South.
The region faces competition over land use, with conflicts between herders, who seek grazing land for their cattle, and farmers, who need arable land for cultivation. These tensions are often worsened by overlapping ethnic and religious divisions.
Last month, at least 42 people were shot dead by suspected herders in a series of weekend attacks across Gwer West district in Nigeria’s central Benue state.
Since 2019, the clashes have claimed more than 500 lives in the region and forced 2.2 million to leave their homes, according to research firm SBM intelligence.
Meanwhile, according to Nigeria’s Punch magazine succession storms are brewing in no fewer than 10 states where governors are nearing the end of their second and final terms in office.
In May 2023, 28 governors were sworn into office, while eight other states held off-cycle inaugurations.
Of the 28, 18 began their first terms, while the remaining 10 commenced their final terms in office.
The 10 governors are those of Oyo, Gombe, Bauchi, Lagos, Ogun, Borno, Nasarawa, Kwara, Yobe, and Adamawa states.
Seven of them are members of the All Progressives Congress, while the remaining three belong to the Peoples Democratic Party.
Findings by The Sunday PUNCH showed that no fewer than 22 politicians have so far declared their interest in Nasarawa, Lagos, and Ogun, while the names of some political heavyweights continue to dominate conversations within both the APC and PDP in those states.
Campaign posters have also started flooding some states, even as outgoing governors keep their succession plans secret.
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