World Tour: Massacre sparks outcry in Nigeria

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: deadly attacks in Nigeria.

Militants believed to be Fulani herdsmen stormed farming villages over the weekend. They killed dozens and forced thousands to flee. The Fulani are mostly Muslim nomads. Some have clashed violently with Christian farmers over land and grazing rights.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s the latest in a series of brutal assaults that have left communities grieving, exhausted, and demanding protection.

WORLD Reporter Onize Oduah brings us this week’s World Tour special report.

SOUND: [Protesters chanting]

ONIZE ODUAH: Angry protestors chanted and held green branches on Sunday in Makurdi, the capital of Nigeria’s northcentral Benue state. They pushed back against police officers who tried to use tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Their anger followed a deadly overnight attack that began Friday night in the state’s villages of Yelwata and Daudu.

Residents say the armed Fulani terrorists staged a coordinated attack: One group first entered the western part of Yelwata and began shooting. Then, another group of attackers entered through the village’s eastern borders.

State authorities initially said at least 59 people died, but residents in the region have placed the death toll at 200 and possibly higher. More than 6,000 others are now displaced.

Edna Jones joined the protest in Makurdi.

JONES: I am protesting because right now, we are standing on the dead bodies of our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, and sisters, we have become IDPs in our own country. These killings have persisted for years.

Many of the victims were internally displaced people—or IDPs—who had sought refuge in the town after fleeing destruction from past attacks in their own communities.

The attackers opened fire on their victims and also set fire to the homes and market stalls where many IDPs were sleeping for the night.

SHIMAKAA: He was on a run, and then they shot him from behind …

Sekegh Shimakaa is an architect in Makurdi. One of the workers on his farmland was among the Yelwata victims.

SHIMAKAA: You know this, the strategy was, burn houses, stay out. Whoever comes out, you shoot them and all that. So I think he came out, and he was shot.

Benue and other states in the region have faced attacks that have pitted herders against mostly Christian farming communities. But residents say the attacks have grown more violent and coordinated, with deadly force and kidnappings. The attackers have also taken over some villages in the state.

Shimakaa has experienced the violence firsthand. In February, herdsmen abducted him as he left his farm.

SHIMAKAA: They took me into the bush. They took me up to the forest somewhere in Guma, and we stayed there for about seven days.

His family raised more than $6,000 in ransom to secure his release.

SHIMAKAA: I got released through the water line, through the river, because they instructed the money to come through the river, and then the boat that my people looked for to bring the ransom was the same boat that conveyed me when I was released.

On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV prayed for Nigeria in the aftermath of the weekend killings.

POPE LEO XIV: [ITALIAN] I pray that security, justice and peace will prevail in Nigeria, a beloved country so affected by various forms of violence.

His acknowledgement further fueled protesters, who said that he addressed the unrest even as Nigerian leaders remained silent.

SOUND: [Protesters]

Here’s protester Edna Jones again:

JONES: The government has a duty to protect lives and properties. If President Tinubu is overwhelmed by this insecurity in North central, in Benue, in Plateau, in Taraba, he should step aside, he should resign.

Benue state Gov. Hyacinth Alia has said his administration will strengthen security units to better protect communities.

But Shimakaa agrees that leaders have so far failed the people. He points to a pledge by the current administration to get people back to their homes. But two years after the leaders took office, thousands still remain displaced.

In another sign of escalation, Shimakaa says the attacks are also drawing closer to the state’s capital of Makurdi. One attack three weeks ago left three people dead.

SHIMAKAA: We want peace. This is raining season. This is farming period. We can't farm. We can't go to our farms to farm. So what are we going to eat? What we had in our store barns, they’re destroying it and burning it down. So what are we going to eat tomorrow? Should we die of hunger, or should we die because they are coming to kill us, coming after us?

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah.

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