Jihadists massacred around 200 Christians in Nigeria last week after storming a predominantly Catholic farming community and setting fire to homes, according to multiple reports.
Last Friday and Saturday, Fulani Jihadist herdsmen targeted the Christians in Yelwata, in Nigeria’s Benue State, according to Catholic news outlet, Crux. The militants attempted to storm St. Joseph’s Church in Yelwata, which was housing families who had been displaced by previous Fulani Jihadist attacks in other areas, but were repelled by police, according to another report from Church in Need. The militants then attacked the town square, setting fire to buildings and killing people while yelling “Allahu Akbar.”
According to eyewitnesses on the ground in the Nigerian community, the Jihadists “surrounded Yelwata … and began slaughtering people—mostly women, children, and displaced families who thought they had found safety here.”
“We’re still finding bodies in the bushes,” said local youth leader Mton Matthias. “The death toll is rising every hour.”
Pope Leo addressed the “terrible massacre” on Sunday when he said Christians “were killed with extreme cruelty, most of whom were internally displaced persons hosted by the local Catholic mission.”
“I pray that security, justice, and peace will prevail in Nigeria, a beloved country so affected by various forms of violence,” Pope Leo said before he delivered the Sunday Angelus prayer, Vatican News reported. “And I pray in a special way for the rural Christian communities in Benue State who have been unceasingly the victims of violence.”
Pope Leo prays for the victims of a “terrible massacre” in Benue State, Nigeria.
Around 200 people were “brutally killed” in Yelwata, in the Guma Local Government Area on the night of the 13th/14th June, the Pope said, most of them internally displaced persons “sheltered by the… pic.twitter.com/gOZw8Ny0L2
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) June 15, 2025
The violence against Christians in Nigeria is not new, but last week’s massacre marks the deadliest atrocity committed against Christians in the country in recent years, according to Church in Need. Fulani herdsman, made up of Muslims, regularly threaten farming communities, made up mostly of Christians, in Benue State. Between 2023 and 2025, more than 1,000 people have been killed as the Jihadists have clashed with farmers and Nigeria’s security forces, the BBC reported.
According to Rev. Fr. Remigius Ihyula — director of the Justice, Peace and Development Foundation (JPDF) — the violence against Christians is part of an effort to clear the land of the Christian inhabitants.
“These Fulani militias are not just killing—they’re clearing land to claim it,” he said. “And they’re being allowed to do it.”
The Nigerian government, led by Muslims, has been accused of looking the other way while radical Muslims attack and kill Christians.
“The credible evidence of who [the attackers] are is undeniable, so why is the government helpless in securing the safety of its citizens?” asked Father Moses Aondover Iorapuu, a Parish priest in Makurdi, Nigeria.