Attacks on Christian communities highlight escalating violence amid wider farmer-herder conflict
In the early hours of June 13, 2025, heavily armed Fulani militants carried out a coordinated assault on the village of Yelwata in Guma County, Benue State, slaughtering over 200 Christian residents as they slept at a Catholic mission and marketplace .
The massacre is part of a troubling surge of targeted violence across Benue State over preceding weeks, including attacks in Aondoana (May 25) and Edikwu-Ankpali (June 1) . Known as the “Yelwata massacre,” it has fueled widespread displacement and condemnation across national and religious circles .
Church authorities have described it as a jihadist campaign aiming at Christians, while Nigerian officials, human rights groups, and analysts continue to debate whether to label the violence as religiously motivated genocide or communal conflict . Intersociety, a Nigerian NGO, frames the violence in genocidal terms, reporting over 8,200 Christian deaths in 2023 alone and urging international recognition of a “silent jihadist genocide” .
According to the International Organization for Migration and local NGOs, the violence has displaced thousands. In Benue State, more than 6,500 people fled their homes in June alone, with over 2,800 arriving at IDP camps in just one week . Since 2000, Genocide Watch estimates that at least 62,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in conflict involving Fulani militants, Boko Haram, and ISWAP .
Though rooted in land disputes between Fulani pastoralists and mostly Christian farmers, this conflict increasingly carries religious and ethnic overtones. Fulani herders, predominantly Muslim, constitute about 90 percent of Nigeria’s cattle-owning pastoralists, exacerbating community divisions in the Middle Belt region .
Following the Yelwata massacre, President Bola Tinubu visited Benue State on June 18 and pledged military action, but critics say violence has intensified, including new attacks in neighboring villages such as Udei, Ukohol, and Daudu. Community leaders report daily deaths, targeting of security personnel, pregnant women, and farmers, and widespread arson .
Church groups, rights activists, and U.S.-based NGOs are calling for greater international scrutiny and intervention, arguing that Nigeria’s labeling of these killings as mere communal disputes downplays their religious targeting .
As of early August 2025, neither an independent investigation nor a public accounting by federal authorities has been announced. Analysts emphasize the need for transparent inquiry and accountability.