Pope Leo has offered prayers for the victims of what he described as a “terrible massacre” in Benue State, Nigeria.
Speaking before the Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican, the Pope said about 200 people were “brutally killed” in Yelwata, Guma Local Government Area, during the night of June 13 and 14.
He said most of the victims were internally displaced persons who had been “sheltered by the local Catholic mission.”
The Pope prayed for “security, justice, and peace” in Nigeria, stating that he was particularly concerned for the “rural Christian communities of the Benue State who have been relentless victims of violence.”
His remarks come amid growing international attention on the crisis in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where attacks on farming communities have led to widespread displacement and loss of lives.
In a separate statement on Saturday, Amnesty International Nigeria urged the Nigerian government to “immediately end the almost daily bloodshed in Benue State and bring the actual perpetrators to justice.”
The rights group said the killings reflect a deepening failure of the state to protect vulnerable communities, especially those already displaced by earlier violence.
This recent killing is one too many!
This government is more interested in the elections of 2027 than concentrate on her primary responsibilities to the citizens. There is a silent but very obvious compromise between the leadership of the National security and the terrorists that engage in the massacre of helpless Nigerians.
The day of reckoning is coming up though.
I think the government is responsible for the unending bloodshed in the state. The governor must stand on neutrality and be very objective in the dispensation of justice. Form a committee, call the erring communities, and identify the causes of the problems, which are known to every mature person in the Middle Belt region. All the problems started when China began exporting assorted herbicides into the region, which makes farming easier, even for the lazy people who are not able to cultivate an acre of land. This group of neo-farmers, who don’t have inherited farmland, collaborate with politicians to annex and invade grazing areas, forest reserves, and cattle routes gazetted and mapped out by the colonial government as government lands. Today, the population has increased, but the land has not followed suit. To enjoy the peaceful coexistence we had before, the government should revert to the status quo that allows the free movement of the nomads and their animals since Roga gives no answer.
May the souls of all those killed and the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.
We need to stand up and defend ourselves because government is not doing anything
We are hopeless and homeless here in our country home.
Thank you your holiness for offering prayers for us.
The attack in Benue state will not stop any time soon unless states have their own security forces to protect their own people. Nigeria’s federation is defective since the federal police have failed in Benue state. Plateau and Benue states are good for herders and they need those states to settle hence the land owners must vacate their land or be killed.
So shameful.
Amen
Benue state was know as a peaceful state to stay,but know we are no more understand,I pray for Gods intervention over them, and for the died once may there soul rest in perfect peace…
We are not Nigerians that’s the reason nigerians government allowed their people to kill us but God himself will fight for benue
May the souls rest in peace
kabiruumar2004@gmail.com
My business is house
My name is Umar kabiru from F C T Abuja Nigeria
Location area address it’s area 1 section 1 sokoto street garki Abuja Nigeria
Thank you very much
May God blessings you sir/ma.
Try for Nigeria to be served