More than 6,000 people have fled their homes in central Nigeria after a deadly attack by gunmen last week, emergency services said on Monday.
Gunmen attacked the village of Yelewata on Friday night in a region that has seen a surge in violence amid clashes between Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian farmers competing for land and resources.
"As of last night, displacement figures stood at 1,069 households, comprising 6,527 individuals," the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said in a statement.
More than half of those displaced – many of whom are women and children – "are in urgent need of food, non-food items, potable water and essential medical supplies," NEMA added.
Deadly attack
The emergency agency estimated that the attack had killed at least 100 people.
Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia told a news conference late on Sunday that the death toll had reached 59 in Yelewata, though residents said the toll could exceed 100.
Amnesty International also put the death toll at more than 100.
Benue is one of Nigeria's three biggest food-producing states, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Pope condemns killings
Pope Leo XIV condemned the killings during his Sunday prayer in Rome, calling it a "terrible massacre" in which mostly displaced civilians were murdered with "extreme cruelty."
He said "rural Christian communities" in Benue were victims of incessant violence.
On Sunday, police fired teargas to disperse thousands of residents protesting the killings.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said in a Sunday night statement that he had "directed the security agencies to act decisively and arrest perpetrators of these evil acts on all sides of the conflict and prosecute them."
Massacres
Attacks and fatal clashes in the region are also often motivated by religious and ethnic sentiment.
Two weeks ago, gunmen killed 25 people in two attacks in Benue state.
More than 150 people were killed in massacres across Plateau and Benue states in April.
In a recent report, Amnesty International tallied 6,896 people killed over the last two years in Benue.
