Nigeria suffers one of its deadliest attacks in 2025
Gunmen, believed to be armed herders, attacked the Yelewata and Daudu communities in central Nigeria’s Guma Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State late on Friday, June 13, firing weapons and setting homes on fire.
At least 100 people, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and five security personnel, were reportedly killed, while many remain missing, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
According to the Vanguard newspaper, the residents were said to have received advance warnings of impending attacks by the marauding fighters.
A familiar pattern of bloodshed
Benue has long been a frontline in Nigeria’s farmer‑herder conflicts. Over the past decade, hundreds of lives have been lost to such attacks, particularly in Guma, Logo, and Agatu Local Government Areas.
Tensions often surface when herders graze cattle on farmlands — a practice herders trace back to a 1965 law, while farming communities continue to call for protection of their crops and land.
In April 2022, over 25 civilians were killed in coordinated attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen across Guma LGA. Just this year, between February and May 2025, over 150 fatalities were recorded in Guma, Logo, and Ukum LGAs. A separate incident in Gwer West on May 25 claimed at least 20 more lives.
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