According to Punch, the dusty paths of Yelwata in Benue State are now littered with echoes of fear and loss, following the massacre of more than 200 villagers by suspected Fulani herders. Once a quiet farming settlement in Guma Local Government Area, the community has transformed into a shell of its former self—its fields untended, its homes abandoned, its silence deafening.
Among the few remaining residents is 35-year-old farmer Teide User. On the day the attack unfolded, he had travelled to Lafia in neighbouring Nasarawa State to secure the bail of his younger brother, who had been arrested by police on allegations of cattle rustling. Though Yelwata is in Benue, residents say they’ve long been baffled by law enforcement’s tendency to handle such cases in Lafia, a situation they describe as both frustrating and suspicious.
While User was away, Fulani representatives reportedly arrived in Yelwata, claiming they came to seek peace. According to the locals, they met with elders, requested calm, and proposed coexistence—a move seen by some as genuine, but by others as a deceptive ploy.
Tensions had already been high from an earlier incident in a neighbouring village, Daudu, where a dispute between a Fulani man and a Tiv youth escalated after claims that a Fulani herder polluted a stream used by residents.
He said; “A Fulani man was said to have defecated in a stream that people used for domestic purposes.”
Although both parties were treated at a hospital and the local authorities intervened, it appears the fragile calm did not last.
Just hours after the so-called peace meeting, heavily armed attackers stormed Yelwata at nightfall. Eyewitnesses describe coordinated strikes that gave no chance of escape. Gunfire rang through the night, homes were torched, and bodies fell in clusters. Survivors fled into the bush, while others watched helplessly as their loved ones were slaughtered.
The tragedy has deepened mistrust among the locals, who now fear that even calls for peace could mask sinister intentions. For families like Teide User’s, the massacre is not just a loss of lives—it is the erasure of a community’s spirit.
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