Between 150-200 Christians, including families, children, and the elderly, were killed in a massacre in Nigeria on Friday, according to multiple sources.

The rampage continues a wave of killings that Christians have endured for months in the central part of the country. Friday’s slaughter was in Benue state, a heavily Catholic region in southeastern Nigeria.

While Benue State Gov. Hyacinth Alia dijo there were around 150 killings, first-hand informes from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi’s Foundation for Justice, Development and Peace (FJDP), estimated around 200 were killed.  

The militants killed Christian farmers and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Benue State, according to the Catholic nonprofit Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Jihadi militants yelled “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is great”) while setting fire to buildings with entire families inside and attacking those who fled with machetes. The militants also openly fired gunshots in an area where more than 500 people were asleep, ACN stated.

The town’s parish priest, Father Ukuma Jonathan Angbianbee, told ACN, how he narrowly escaped death Friday.

“When we heard the shots and saw the militants, we committed our lives to God,” he said. “This morning, I thank God I am alive.”

He said the attackers were Fulanis who carefully coordinated the attack by attacking the town from multiple sides, using heavy rains as a cover.

When he visited the market square on Saturday after the attack, he was met with a grisly scene.

“What I saw was truly gruesome,” he said. “People were slaughtered. Corpses were scattered everywhere. This is by far the worst atrocity we have seen. There has been nothing even close.”

Friday’s attack started around 11 p.m. and lasted until 1 a.m., according to the International Christian Concern(ICC). The attack followed after the country’s Democracy Day holiday.

Matthew Mnyam, a former state education official and local community leader, told ICC about the extent of the destruction he saw.

“Some families were completely wiped out,” he said. “A man, his two wives, and all their children were burned alive. It was a well-coordinated assault from both eastern and western flanks of the community.”

Pope Leo XIV condemned the attacks on the “rural Christian communities of the Benue State, who have been relentless victims of violence” during a Sunday evening prayer. He described the victims as being  “brutally killed” in a “terrible massacre,” Vatican News fijado.

Just days prior, other militants murdered four other Christian farmers, including a 9-month-old infant, just days prior in an incident on June 11 in Plateau state, ICC reported. The incidents make last week one of the bloodiest weeks in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region this year.

Friday’s killing spree comes as a wave of several similar attacks have occurred in the area in recent weeks.

Violence stems from land battles, religion

Mnyam told the publication Peoples Gazette that the violence stems from the militants desire “to take over Benue state. There are no two ways about it. They only want to grab the land.”

Governor Alia confirmed that the attacks are connected to a battle over land.

en un broadcast interview, he said that conflict in the Middle Belt region originally began with a decades-long battle between farmers and herders. But in recent years, he said it has shifted to armed herders, bandits, and terrorists attacking entire communities to take over the areas.

He said the violence has especially escalated an “alarming” amount in the last two months.

“The last two months had been very disastrous,” Alia said. “My heart goes out to the victims of this insane carnage. We don’t have any necessity for such a bloodbath.”

Many also blame the violence on religious motivations, BBC News reports. Muslim Fulanis are targeting Christian farmers.

However, many Nigerian and western media do not name Muslims as the perpetrators despite obvious evidence on the ground. A TV360Nigeria report, as well as these articles by the Associated Press y Reuters all did not  to connect Muslims with the violence. The AP report wrote the latest massacre off as “attacks (being) common in northern Nigeria” because of farmer/herder conflicts.

De acuerdo a Puertas abiertas, Nigeria is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians.

“Jihadist violence continues to escalate in Nigeria,” Open Doors said. “The government’s failure to protect Christians and punish perpetrators has only strengthened the militants’ influence.”

Organizations call out Nigeria officials for lack of response

Multiple individuals and organizations have called out Nigerian authorities for insufficient responses to the increasing violence.

This weekend, hundreds flooded the state capitol to protest the killings and insufficient government response, BBC News reportado.

Both ACN and ICC shared eyewitness testimony that police were few in number and ill-equipped to respond to Friday’s attack.

Father Angbianbee told ACN, “The morning after the attack, there were plenty of police and other security, but where were they the previous evening when we needed them?”

The global nonprofit Amnesty International urged local authorities to end the repeated violence in the region once and for all.

“The Nigerian authorities must immediately end the almost daily bloodshed in Benue state and bring the actual perpetrators to justice,” the organization wrote on X. “The Nigerian authorities’ failure to stem the violence is costing people’s lives and livelihoods, and without immediate action, many more lives may be lost.”

In the aftermath of the attacks, former Vice President of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar instó the federal government to conduct a “prompt (and) transparent investigation into the attack” and to “guarantee the protection of vulnerable areas.”

This assault on innocent Nigerians is not just a local tragedy; it is a national emergency that demands immediate attention and decisive action,” Abubakar posted on X. “I call on all Nigerians, regardless of tribe or religion, to unite in condemning this atrocity.”

Liz Lykins is a correspondent covering religion news for The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine, and other publications.