At least 100 people were killed in an attack by gunmen on the village of Yelewata in Nigeria’s central Benue state, Amnesty International Nigeria reported on Saturday.

The attack took place from late Friday night into the early hours of Saturday, the group said in a statement posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter)

“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 said.

Benue, located in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, is where the predominantly Muslim North meets the largely Christian South.
The region experiences ongoing conflicts over land use, with clashes between herders seeking grazing land for their cattle and farmers needing land for cultivation. These disputes are often worsened by ethnic and religious tensions.

Last month, suspected herders killed at least 42 people in a series of attacks across Gwer West district in central Benue.
Since 2019, these violent clashes have claimed over 500 lives and displaced around 2.2 million people, according to research firm SBM Intelligence.