Less than a week after the massacre of over 50 farmers across various communities in Benue State, fresh violence erupted on Tuesday in the Afia community of Ukum Local Government Area, where gunmen killed 11 residents and injured several others in a dawn attack.
The traditional ruler of Ukum, His Royal Highness Chief Iyorkyaa Kaave, disclosed the incident in Makurdi during a high-level security meeting convened to address the recent surge in violence across the region.
Chief Kaave described the attack as unprovoked and alleged it was part of a larger, coordinated effort to displace indigenous farming communities. “These attacks began on Thursday in Logo and had spread to multiple communities in Ukum by Good Friday. We are still counting the dead, recovering corpses, and many remain missing,” he lamented.
According to the monarch, the attackers, believed to be armed herders, stormed Afia community in the early hours of Tuesday, opening fire on unsuspecting residents. Eleven people were confirmed dead at the scene, while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries.
Expressing deep concern, Chief Kaave accused the attackers of seeking to forcefully seize ancestral lands. “These people are not the Fulani we knew and lived peacefully with in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, they would arrive with their cattle and families during the dry season. What we face today are armed men with AK-47s, attacking at night and returning to occupy the homes of their victims.”
He called on President Bola Tinubu to take decisive and uncompromising action against the perpetrators, cautioning against any form of negotiation with those responsible for the killings.
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“The President must understand this clearly — we are not interested in settling with murderers. There is a hidden, yet now obvious agenda: to kill, displace, and occupy,” he warned.
The latest incident underscores the ongoing security challenges facing rural communities in Benue State, many of which continue to suffer repeated attacks despite repeated calls for federal intervention.
