Joseph Kwagh, a survivor of the brutal attack that struck the Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, is struggling to come to terms with the loss of his loved ones. In the deadly violence, he lost eight members of his immediate family—his father, stepmother, and six siblings. The attackers also destroyed his family’s grain stores and wiped out all the food meant for the planting season.
In an emotional interview with News Central TV, Kwagh said the attack happened after repeated warnings from suspected herders were ignored by the community. He explained that threats had often been made in the past, but most never turned into violence. This time was different.
“We thought it was like previous rumours that come and go without anything happening,” Kwagh recalled. “We sat vigil outside our houses, talking and sharing stories… That is why even babies were hacked to death.”
He explained that people were still outside when rain started to fall, prompting many—including his father and siblings—to seek shelter in a nearby house that doubled as a grain store. That was when the attackers struck.
Gunshots rang through the village. Cries for help were drowned out by the sound of rain. “Not until someone came running towards our location with blood all over him… that was when I and my mother and the rest of my biological brothers and sisters decided to flee,” he said.
Kwagh and some family members managed to escape, but what he returned to later was horrifying.
“I was able to go to the very house… where I discovered his charred remains along with my step-mother and siblings,” he said. “We had foodstuffs in the store… all burnt down along with our family members.”
The loss, he said, has shattered his future. “These deaths have created a vacuum that I cannot fill,” he said, noting that he also lost all his farm supplies and savings.
He now fears returning to the farm due to safety concerns and the potential for further attacks. “You never can tell what these pastoralists are capable of doing,” he said.
Kwagh also notes that tension had been growing over cattle grazing on farmlands. When villagers complained or reported damage to the police, the responses were never enough to cover their losses.
“Our elders decided to ask them to leave our land, so that they can farm peacefully. That is our only crime. Nobody harmed them,” he explained. “They only said, since we are refusing them to graze on our land, that we too will not know peace.”
