Gunmen kill at least 100 people in Nigeria's Benue state, Amnesty International says

Benue is in Nigeria's Middle Belt, a region where the majority Muslim North meets the largely Christian South.

At least 100 people have been killed in an attack by gunmen on a village in Nigeria's central Benue state, Amnesty International Nigeria said Saturday.

The attack took place from late Friday into the early hours of Saturday in the village of Yelewata, the group said in a post on social media platform X.

"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 added.

Benue is in Nigeria's Middle Belt, a region where the majority Muslim North meets the largely Christian South.

The region faces competition over land use, with conflicts between herders, who seek grazing land for their cattle, and farmers, who need arable land for cultivation. These tensions are often worsened by overlapping ethnic and religious divisions.

Last month, at least 42 people were shot dead by suspected herders in a series of weekend attacks across Gwer West district in Nigeria's central Benue state.

Since 2019, the clashes have claimed more than 500 lives in the region and forced 2.2 million to leave their homes, according to research firm SBM Intelligence.