*CDS, IGP Launch Across Border Manhunt For Killers
UNITED Nations (UN) Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has condemned the recent attacks and killings in Benue State, which resulted on over 100 deaths, calling for the arrest of all those responsible for the violence.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN scribe, said “We’re monitoring the situation.
“The Secretary General condemns the killing of innocent civilians, including in Nigeria and we hope that those responsible for this violence will be found and apprehended.”
Recall that President Bola Tinubu, while condemning the violence and called on leaders and residents to embrace peace, love and mutual understanding.
Tinubu is scheduled to travel to the state on Wednesday, June18, as part of renewed efforts to foster peace and address the persistent conflict affecting communities and meet with stakeholders, including traditional rulers, political, religious, community leaders and youth groups to seek lasting solutions to the hostilities.
Meanwhile, the military and the Police have launched a joint cross-border manhunt for the killers of almost 200 villagers in Yelewata, Guma Local Council on Friday night, June 13.
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Chris Musa, and Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, arrived in Makurdi and Yelewata on Monday, June 12 to coordinate the operation targeted at the suspected killers.
Musa, after assessing the carnage, vowed to take the battle to the terrorists by changing the military’s strategy to fit the situation on the ground.
Given the manner of the attack, Musa expressed worry that the attackers may be operating with help from within the community.
The CDS told journalists in Yelewata: “In every society, including the military, there are always people who compromise. I promise to meet with the commanders and find ways to change our strategies.
“In my estimation, it is one killing too many. We’re here to ensure that we address such. From here, I’m going to see my commanders and we are going to change our strategies to look inwards and see how we can address this. We cannot do it alone without the community.”
The defence chief solicited support from the community, saying the armed forces’ efforts will not yield much without it.
“There may be trust issues that we are going to address. For us, we want this to be the last that would happen.
“We need everybody to be part of it, we understand that even before now, we used to have even within us, people that used to compromise and give out information.
“If you see the way some of the burnings were made, you know that they were targeted. It shows they have insiders,” he stated.
He acknowledged the porous borders between Nasarawa and Benue states, promising to meet with the Nasarawa State governor to discuss how to tackle the challenge.
He added: “I want to assure Nigerians, the whole Benue State, and all over the country, that we are determined, based on the mandate of Mr. President, that we will restore peace and tranquillity within the country.
“We always have information that these people are coming from across borders; wherever they come from, we will go after them.
“We must take the battle to them, we must not wait for them to attack, and that is what I think. It is very critical that tomorrow (Tuesday), we proceed to Nasarawa State, because the borders are actually very critical to the success of what we are doing.”
Muse soilicited the support of youths and indeed, every Nigerian, noting: “We need Nigerians to support us. We must work together as a team. For the youths, please don’t give up. This is our country; we can never give up our country for anything. And this madness must stop.”
The gunmen stormed Yelewata village, unleashing mayhem on it and surrounding villaged, one the deadliest in years, killing over 100 residents, almost all of them Christians, targeting displaced families, setting fire to their buildings as people slept and attacking with machetes, anyone who tried to flee.
The IDP families were in buildings repurposed as temporary accommodation in the market square in Yelewata, not too far from Makurdi, the state capital, as they shouted “Allahu Akhbar” (God is great) before killing people at will.
In a first-hand report given to Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), local clergy said earlier the same evening, the Police had repelled the attackers as they tried to storm Yelewata’s St. Joseph’s Church, where up to 700 IDPs lay sleeping.
But then, the militants made for the town’s market square, where they reportedly used fuel to set fire to the doors of the displaced people’s accommodation, before opening fire in an area where over 500 people were asleep.
Initial reports confirmed that at least 100 people died in the three-hour killing spree, but later data collected by the Diocese of Makurdi’s Foundation for Justice, Development and Peace (FJDP) estimated a full total of 200.
The death toll makes it the single worst atrocity in the region, where there have been a sudden upsurge in attacks and increasing signs that a concerted militant assault is underway to force an entire community to leave.
Meanwhile, church leaders were working to help huge numbers of people who had been taking refuge in Yelewata, following Fulani herdsmen attacks on communities across Benue State, and who have now fled for neighbouring towns and villages.
Speaking to ACN from Yelewata, less than 12 hours after the atrocity, the town’s Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Ukuma Jonathan Angbianbee, described how he and other IDPs narrowly escaped death, dropping to the floor of the church’s presbytery at the sound of gunfire.
He explained: “When we heard the shots and saw the militants, we committed our lives to God. This morning, I thank God I am alive.”
Jonathan also described visiting the market square: “What I saw was truly gruesome. People were slaughtered. Corpses were scattered everywhere.”
An initial report from the FJDP, whose staff had just visited the scene of the massacre, said: “It was an eyesore, not a sight for anyone to behold. Some (bodies were) burned beyond recognition, infants, children, mothers and fathers just wiped out.”
Jonathan said some were so badly burned it was difficult to identify them, and that Yelewata had absorbed thousands of IDPs from neighbouring villages, as it was considered relatively safe, lying on the main road to Abuja, bur has now been largely deserted, with many taking refuge in nearby Daudu and Abagena.
Jonathan said he and others identified the attackers as Fulanis and that the attack was carefully coordinated, with the militants accessing the town from multiple angles and using the cover of heavy rains to mount their assault.
He noted: “There is no question about who carried out the attack; they were definitely Fulanis. They were shouting ‘Alahu Akhbar.’”
Jonathan and other clergy in the Diocese of Makurdi criticised the security response to the attack, saying the Police who stopped the militants from accessing the church were poorly equipped and unable to prevent the attack on the nearby marketplace.
A leading priest from the diocese said: “The morning after the attack, there were plenty of Police and other security, but where were they the previous evening when we needed them?
“This is by far worst atrocity we have seen. There has been nothing even close.”
Pope Leo XIV has expressed sadness over the attack and offered prayer for those “brutally killed” in “a terrible massacre,” most of them IDPs “sheltered by the local Catholic mission.”
The Pope said that he was praying for “security, justice and peace” in Nigeria, adding that his thoughts were with especially were the “rural Christian communities of the Benue State who have been relentless victims of violence.”
The area of the attack, including Makurdi, is over 95 per cent Catholic and church leaders have repeatedly called for international help, saying a jihadi militant plan was underway to seize land and ethnically cleanse the region of its Christian presence.
