Yan Nigeria
Benue State, long dubbed Nigeria’s “Food Basket,” has tragically become a frontline in the escalating farmer-herder conflict.
For some years, Benue has suffered persistent attacks, largely involving armed Fulani herders targeting agricultural communities.
These attacks have been linked to retaliatory land disputes. However, residents and human rights groups have disagreed with this submission, insisting that it is a calculated campaign of territorial domination.
The most recent horror occurred in Yelwata village, Guma Local Government Area, on June 13, 2025, where over 100 villagers were massacred in a coordinated midnight assault.
Witnesses describe gunmen moving house to house, burning down homes and executing civilians, many of them women and children, in cold blood.
The dire incident led to the death of entire families, including a mother and four children, who were burned alive in their home.
A local farmer, Fidelis Adidi, lost his wife, children, and farmland. Pregnant trader Talatu Agauta watched helplessly as her only means of livelihood, her rice stock and stall, were set ablaze.
With hundreds injured and thousands displaced, survivors have been left with little more than trauma and the scent of ash.
Many now live in shelters, relying on donations and aid, and haunted by the memory of that bloody night.
Presidency, Benue State Response
Five days after the massacre, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu visited Benue, but his presence stirred more outrage than comfort.
Critics argued that the visit felt more like a political campaign stop than a genuine condolence mission.
Social media erupted with condemnation.
one X user wrote, “This is not Germany. If it were, leaders would show up in the affected village, not pose for photos in air-conditioned rooms.”
President Tinubu questioned why no arrests had been made and ordered a manhunt for the attackers and demanded arrests.
He directed security forces to restore peace and support affected communities.
He insisted that this move must be integrated into a wider security overhaul, targeting gang violence and herder–farmer clashes.
Governor Hyacinth Alia, on his part, expressed grief, describing the attack as “barbaric and inhumane.”
He met with survivors, offered prayers, and called for peace among communities. However, he claimed that the attackers spoke unfamiliar languages and may have been foreign mercenaries.
Alia urged security agencies to step up and proposed collaboration with local vigilante groups.
Let’s Take A Look At Mali’s Ogossagou Massacre
The Ogossagou massacre occurred on March 23, 2019, in the village of Ogossagou, located in the Mopti region of central Mali. The attack was one of the deadliest ethnic massacres in the country’s history, resulting in the deaths of over 160 Fulani civilians, including women, children, and the elderly.
The massacre is rooted in longstanding tensions between the Fulani (a mainly Muslim, pastoralist ethnic group) and the Dogon (a traditionally farming community). These tensions were inflamed by competition over land and water resources, and worsened by the presence of extremist groups in the region.
A Dogon self-defense militia known as Dan Na Ambassagou was accused of carrying out the attack. The group claimed to be protecting its communities from Fulani people allegedly aligned with Islamist militants.
After the Ogossagou massacre in March 2019, which left over 160 Fulani civilians dead, the Malian government and international actors took several steps in response. However, these efforts produced limited results, and the crisis remained largely unresolved.
Mali failed to prosecute those responsible for the Ogossagou massacre. This impunity fueled more revenge killings.
Also in Nigeria, many high-profile attacks in Benue, Plateau, and Kaduna have seen little to no convictions.
What does this tell us? Nigeria must learn from Mali and strengthen independent investigations, prosecutions, and public accountability to break the cycle of violence.
Mali deployed troops after the massacre, but security alone didn’t resolve the tensions.
Nigeria also relies heavily on military deployments like Operation Whirl Stroke, but without addressing root causes, the violence persists.
What Does The Expert Have To Say
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Naija News, Security and Intelligence expert, Seyi Adetayo, demanded that local communities be given an opportunity to defend themselves.
According to him, “This current escalation is believed to have some political undercurrent in it and then we can connect that to the comments by the governor of the states, and also recent comments by Mr. President where he said that all the political gladiators in the state must come together and learn to work together.
“So, yes, people have talked about herdsmen, farmers, disputes, crisis, killings, that has been going on. It’s not different from what, you know, Plateau state has been experiencing as well. But then, aside from the farmers, herders , there are also bandits. Bandits that are sacking communities in the Northwest.
“In the northwest, where the forced communities are being made to contribute, failure to do so would lead to attacks from bandits who wil take their harvest and the rest.
“And of recent is the belief that politics is the issue behind the escalation.
“It may not be a cause, but it might be the reason why there is so much killing in the last few weeks.
“And in that sense, the best approach to bring down the tide is to immediately apply a political solution which I believe makes Mr. President’s visit to Benue State at this time in question to be very very right. His going there, well, I believe that would cushion the agony of the people of the state.
“And also give them some real hope, something to hold on to.
“Promising them of de-escalation. So, after this political solution, there will still be a need for us as a nation to use different tactics from the one we have been using before. Because all along, we have been deploying police, deploying the military. But the truth is that these people are not attacking big towns. They are going to farmsteads, small small villages, farm settlements to attack them.
“How many soldiers are you going to put on the farms?
“They know the forest, they know their way around, they know how to navigate, they know where the checkpoints are situated. And they know how to navigate their way.
“So, we have seen situations where people are killed, and they try to go and retrieve the corpse, those who go to retrieve the corpse were also killed.
“Another group sent again to retrieve the corpses of those killed, were also killed.
“These are the people killing them, they understand the terrain. They know where to stay, that they will not be seen.
“They will see the people coming and they will kill them.
“So, beyond that, we need to begin to start, to readdress our national security approach,
“There are too many arms already in circulation And the way to counter that is to arm the people that can actually counter those that have arms with them, force by force.
“And then one side will neutralize the other
“It is better that the side that is under the control of the government is able to neutralise the other side.
“And the side with the government can now easily be disarmed later.
“And like I said earlier in my interview on another platform, the comment by the Director General, the DSS, Mr. Tosin Ajayi in respect of the need for communities to be the first layer of security is very, very right at this moment.
“We need to go back, this is not the traditional police community policing that we are talking about, no, and I have said, at least where I worked, I have seen where this was actually implemented in Anambra state some years back, where community town unions were, you know, empowered by the states, and Nigerian police, to provide the first layer of security.
“And the set of vigilante groups, the vigilante groups were armed.
“The state government gave communities vehicles. Town unions also brought additional vehicles.
“All the rifles bought were all documented, registered. They were trained and continued to go for weekly briefing, and they had supervision directly from the Nigerian police.
“In those years, armed robbers were coming to Anambra state to rob bank, or attack billion van. Their first point of call would be to send one team to SARS Awkuzu and face the SARS.
“Open fire on the SARS headquarters, on the highway, flatten all the tires. Decapitate the SARS.
“There won’t be an instrument of government that can reinforce, or come out, you know, to counter them.
“They first of all deal with police formation, where enforcement can come from, then they now go to the bank, and deal with the bank. They do it simultaneously. Even when the banks were calling for help, there was nobody to help because the SARS Awkuzu that was supposed to help them had already received their own kicks.
“So when this system was implemented, it broke down this crime and criminality to the lowest level.
“In fact, after that, within two months armed robbery, bullion van hijacking came to an end in Anambra.
“We started seeing it happening around Asaba areas because they had to run out of Anambra to start doing it in Asaba.
“And I know it is easy to say there is this operation whatever that is happening in Benue but the point is that, like I said also, in another platform is that, when you are implementing something like this, it’s not something that one state will just implement.
“All the states are involved. What that means is that, if you are running the operation in your state and the state beside you is becoming hot for criminals, they don’t choose your own state as a hibernating ground.
“That is a problem with Benue. It is a hibernating ground for these criminals. They will come out from that state and cross the border into Benue state.
“So we have Benue bordered by Kogi state, bordered by Enugu state, bordered by Ebonyi State, bordered by Cross River state, bordered by Taraba state, bordered by Nasarawa State and several states.
“So it has to be, you know, a holistic approach towards restoration.
“So I’m actually saying this is something that the nation has to incorporate into its national crime response plan.
“Where we have to make sure that all states have this capacity and capability towards attacking these people.
“So this is the approach that we are talking about. That the government needs to make this a holistic approach. So that we can bring this crime to a barest possible limit.
Conclusion
The killings in Benue, like Mali’s Ogossagou massacre, reveal what happens when weak governance, ethnic distrust, and unchecked violence collide. Mourning without justice, and security without reform, only allow the bloodshed to continue.
Benue is bleeding, but it must not be forgotten. Nigeria must act now not just with soldiers and speeches, but with a bold, coordinated strategy that combines justice, community protection, and long-term peacebuilding.
If we fail to learn from Mali, we risk repeating its tragedy this time, on Nigerian soil.
The post ‘No Justice, No Peace, Why Benue May Be Nigeria’s Ogossagou’ appeared first on Naija News.
