Worst Massacre Of Christians Recorded In Nigeria
Members of the Boko Haram sect of Islam hacked to death Christians who had taken refuge in shelters operated by the Catholic Church.
Muslim militants massacred up to 200 Christians in Nigeria’s Benue State on the evening of Friday, June 13. They targeted displaced families, set fire to their buildings as people slept, and attacked with machetes anyone who tried to flee. The IDP families were in buildings repurposed as temporary accommodation in the market square in Yelewata, in Guma Local Government Area, near Makurdi, when militants stormed in, shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is great”), before killing people at will.
In a first-hand report given to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), local clergy said that earlier the same evening, police had repelled the attackers as they tried to storm Yelewata’s St. Joseph’s Church, where up to 700 IDPs lay sleeping. But then, the militants made for the town’s market square, where they reportedly used fuel to set fire to the doors of the displaced people’s accommodation, before opening fire in an area where more than 500 people were asleep.
Initial reports confirmed that at least 100 people died in the three-hour killing spree, but later data collected by the Diocese of Makurdi’s Foundation for Justice, Development, and Peace (FJDP) estimated a full total of 200. The death toll makes it the single worst atrocity in the region, where there have been a sudden upsurge in attacks and increasing signs that a concerted militant assault is underway to force an entire community to leave.
Meanwhile, Church leaders are working to help huge numbers of people who had been taking refuge in Yelewata, following Fulani attacks on communities across Benue State, and who have now fled for neighboring towns and villages.
“We committed our lives to God”
Speaking to ACN from Yelewata less than 12 hours after the atrocity, the town’s parish priest, Father Ukuma Jonathan Angbianbee, described how he and other IDPs narrowly escaped death, dropping to the floor of the church’s presbytery at the sound of gunfire. He said, “When we heard the shots and saw the militants, we committed our lives to God. This morning, I thank God I am alive.”
Father Jonathan also described visiting the market square: “What I saw was truly gruesome. People were slaughtered. Corpses were scattered everywhere.”
An initial report from the FJDP, whose staff had just visited the scene of the massacre, said, “It was an eyesore, not a sight for anyone to behold.” The FJDP added, “Some [bodies were] burned beyond recognition: infants, children, mothers, and fathers just wiped out.”
Father Jonathan said that some were so badly burned, it was difficult to identify them, and that Yelewata had absorbed thousands of IDPs from neighboring villages – as it was considered relatively safe, lying on the main road to Abuja – but now was largely deserted, with many taking refuge in nearby Daudu and Abagena. Father Jonathan said that he and others identified the attackers as Fulanis and that the attack was carefully coordinated, with the militants accessing the town from multiple angles and using the cover of heavy rains to mount their assault. He said, “There is no question about who carried out the attack. They were definitely Fulanis. They were shouting ‘Alahu Akhbar.’”
Father Jonathan and other clergy in the Diocese of Makurdi criticized the security response to the attack, saying that the police who stopped the militants from accessing the church were poorly equipped and unable to prevent the attack on the nearby marketplace.
A leading priest from the diocese said, “The morning after the attack, there were plenty of police and other security, but where were they the previous evening when we needed them?” He continued, “This is by far worst atrocity we have seen. There has been nothing even close.”
Speaking at the Sunday Angelus yesterday, June 15, Pope Leo XIV said that he was praying for those “brutally killed” in “a terrible massacre,” most of them IDPs “sheltered by the local Catholic mission.” The Pope said that he was praying for “security, justice, and peace” in Nigeria, adding that in his thoughts especially were the “rural Christian communities of the Benue State who have been relentless victims of violence.”
Friday night’s attack comes amid a spike in attacks on Benue State, centering on the Makurdi region, which is more than 95 percent Catholic. More than 100 people were killed in the Makurdi diocese’s Gwer West Local Government Areas, in attacks that started three weeks ago, with more than 5,000 people displaced.
Church leaders have repeatedly called for international help, saying that a jihadi militant plan is underway to seize land and ethnically cleanse the region of its Christian presence.