A survivor of the Yelwata massacre in Benue State has delivered a harrowing account to the United States Congress, describing how she watched armed attackers kill her five children during a night raid that left over 100 people dead and thousands displaced.
Msurshima Apeh, speaking virtually before the House Subcommittee on Africa, said the assailants stormed the camp where families displaced by previous violence had been sleeping, trapping them inside as they attacked with guns, machetes and fire.
She told US lawmakers the attackers—identified by security sources as suspected armed herdsmen—set parts of the building ablaze after killing many occupants. In an attempt to survive, she climbed a nearby tree, from where she saw her children being slaughtered.
The survivor said she later fled into the bush and was rescued hours afterward, joining thousands relocated to another camp in Nasarawa State. The Yelwata attack, which took place in June 2025 in Guma LGA, had sparked national outrage and renewed debate over Nigeria’s worsening farmer–herder conflict.
Human-rights groups say the death toll may have been as high as 200 despite lower official figures, while emergency agencies reported that more than 3,000 people were displaced and faced acute shortages of food and medical supplies in the weeks that followed.
President Bola Tinubu condemned the killings, visited injured victims in Makurdi and ordered an intensified security operation. Police authorities later announced the arrest of 26 suspects linked to the attack.
Apeh’s testimony came as former US President Donald Trump reinstated Nigeria on the Country of Particular Concern list, alleging widespread persecution of Christians. The Nigerian government dismissed the claims, insisting it guarantees religious freedom and rejects any narrative portraying the country as “religiously intolerant.”
