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The IDP families were in buildings repurposed as temporary accommodation in the market square in Yelewata, in Guma Local Government Area, near Makurdi, when the militants stormed in, shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (‘God is great’), before killing people at will.
In a first-hand report given to ACN, local clergy said that earlier the same evening, police had repelled the attackers as they tried to storm Yelewata’s St. Joseph’s Church, where up to 700 IDPs lay sleeping. But the militants then 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 more than 500 people were asleep.
Data collected by the Diocese of Makurdi’s Foundation for Justice, Development and Peace (FJDP) estimated a total of 200 people killed. The death toll makes it the single-worst atrocity in a region where there has been a sudden upsurge in attacks amid increasing signs that a concerted militant assault is underway to force an entire community to leave the region.
Speaking to ACN from Yelewata less than 12 hours after the atrocity, the town’s parish priest, Father 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 said: “When we heard the shots and saw the militants, we committed our lives to God. This morning, I thank God I am alive.”
Father Jonathan 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, stated: “Some [bodies were] burned beyond recognition – infants, children, mothers and fathers just wiped out.”
Father 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 said: “There is no question about who carried out the attack. They were definitely Fulanis. They were shouting ‘Alahu Akhbar.’” Read more here.
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