At least 100 people have been killed in a brutal overnight attack on Yelewata, a village in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria. The massacre, which began late Friday and continued into the early hours of Saturday, was carried out by suspected armed herders, according to eyewitnesses, local officials, and rights group Amnesty International.

The assault marks the third attack on Yelewata within one week, raising alarm over the deteriorating security situation in the region. The attackers reportedly stormed the village just before midnight, overwhelming the community with sophisticated weapons and facing little to no resistance from security forces.

Eyewitness accounts and local sources paint a horrifying picture of the rampage. “They came in large numbers and took over the village for over two hours. This was not just an attack—it was an annihilation,” a Guma local government staff member said anonymously. “They locked families inside their homes and set them ablaze. Many were hacked to death with cutlasses.”

Amnesty International Nigeria, in a statement on X, confirmed the scale of the atrocity, noting that “many people are still missing, dozens injured and left without adequate medical care. Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms.”

Dennis Denen Gbongbon, President of the Association of United Farmers Benue Valley (AUFBV), who visited the scene, reported that more than 85% of the victims were internally displaced persons (IDPs), many of whom had fled previous violence in surrounding communities like Antsa, Dooka, Kadarko, and Giza. These victims were sheltering in makeshift stalls and shops around Yelewata market when the attackers struck.

“This is a targeted attack on vulnerable people,” Gbongbon said. “These IDPs, mostly Tiv farmers, thought they had found safety—but terror continues to pursue them even in displacement. Entire families were wiped out in ways that defy imagination.”

In a separate but related incident on the same night, two soldiers were reportedly killed in Daudu, another community within Guma LGA, while responding to an attempted invasion. Witnesses said five soldiers may have been ambushed, though military officials have yet to confirm the full extent of the losses.

The Special Adviser to the Benue State Governor on Security and Internal Affairs, Joseph Har, confirmed the attacks in both Yelewata and Daudu but said he was still awaiting detailed reports. “I’m aware that this ugly thing happened, but I can’t confirm numbers yet,” he told journalists in Makurdi.

The Benue State Police Command also acknowledged the Yelewata attack. Public Relations Officer Udeme Edet said that tactical units responded swiftly and engaged the assailants in a gun battle, killing some of them. However, he did not provide an official casualty figure. “It’s with great sadness that we report that some individuals lost their lives and others sustained injuries,” he added.

Benue State, located in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, has long been plagued by deadly clashes between farming communities and herders over land use. These tensions are often fueled by deeper ethnic and religious divisions between the mostly Christian Tiv population and predominantly Muslim Fulani herders. In a similar incident last month, suspected herders killed at least 42 people across Gwer West LGA.

As search and rescue operations continue, fears grow that the death toll from the Yelewata massacre may rise above 200, given the number of missing persons and those critically injured. Community leaders and humanitarian workers are calling for urgent intervention to prevent further bloodshed.

Reports by Reuters and Daily Trust contributed to this story.

Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, stoking fears of a wider conflict after Israel expanded its surprise campaign against its main rival with a strike on the world's biggest gas field.

Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel's bombing, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.

Israel's military said more missiles were launched from Iran towards Israel overnight, and that it was attacking military targets in Tehran.

Early Sunday morning, air raid sirens blared across Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Several missiles were seen streaking through the sky over Tel Aviv, while interceptor rockets were launched from the ground. Explosions echoed in both cities.

Israel’s ambulance service said three women were killed and 10 other people injured in an earlier missile strike near a house in northern Israel. Emergency responders with flashlights were seen searching the rubble of the partially collapsed home in Tamra, a predominantly Palestinian city.

Around 2:30 a.m. local time, the Israeli military warned of another barrage launched from Iran and urged the public to seek shelter. By 3:30 a.m., at least four people had been killed and 36 were reported injured in multiple overnight missile attacks. Israeli media published an image of a 10-story residential building, reportedly in central Israel, showing extensive damage after a strike.

Iran said the Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack but that the situation was under control, and that a fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital. Israeli strikes also targeted Iran's defence ministry building in Tehran, causing minor damage, Iran's Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel's energy infrastructure and facilities for fighter jet fuel production. The elite force warned Tehran's attacks will be "heavier and more extensive" if Israel continues its hostilities.

U.S. President Donald Trump had warned Iran of worse to come, but said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme.

A round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was canceled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying the discussions could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel's "barbarous" attacks.

In the first apparent attack to hit Iran's energy infrastructure, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at the world's biggest gas field after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.

The South Pars field, offshore in Iran's southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.

Fears about potential disruption to the region's oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9% on Friday even though Israel spared Iran's oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.

An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.

IRAN SAYS SCORES KILLED

Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day of Israel's campaign, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.

Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Friday night, killing at least three people in Israel.

With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran's people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.

B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organization, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.

Tehran has warned Israel's allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.

However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran's strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation.

Israel sees Iran's nuclear programme as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.

Tehran insists the programme is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However the U.N. nuclear watchdog reported it this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.

Reuters

A few months ago, I saw Mrs Maryam Abacha at the Abuja Continental Hotel (formerly Sheraton Hotel). She was about to alight from a car when I caught a glimpse of her. For a 78-year-old woman, she still looked elegant and gorgeous — nearly 27 years after she was shorn of the power and the glory of being Nigeria’s first lady. I imagined how she has coped with the tragedy of losing many loved ones, including her husband and two of her sons, Ibrahim and Abdullahi, over the years. Even though I was never a fan of her husband who ruled Nigeria with maximum brutality between 1993 and 1998, I still had an urge to greet her — out of courtesy for an elderly woman. But I let it pass.

The next time I would see the woman was on TV. There was nothing elegant or gorgeous in her words. She only reopened old wounds. This is one of those instances when silence is golden. If Mrs Abacha was talking to toddlers and teens, I would have understood her: they might be unable to counter her. After all, that is how history is taught in some parts of Nigeria nowadays. People make up “alternative facts” and pass their imaginations and fabrications to the next generation. But she was speaking to an audience that included those of us who witnessed the murderous and plundering regime of her husband. Some of us will not allow her to re-write history. No, she can’t gaslight us.

Regarding the billions of dollars looted by her husband, she demanded to know who witnessed the plunder, as if she was talking to a congregation of retards. “Who is the witness of the monies that were being stashed? Did you see the signature or the evidence of any monies stashed abroad? And the monies that my husband kept vanished in a few months. People are not talking about that.” She even sent posers to Abacha’s critics: “Why are you blaming somebody? Is that tribalism or a religious problem or what is the problem with Nigerians? Where did he steal the money from? Where would he have stolen the money from? And because Nigerians are fools, they listen to everything.”

I don’t know where to start from. But before we get to the pillaging of the national treasury by Abacha and his associates, we should first attend to her “tribalism” and “religious” problem. For the record, it was Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, a northerner and a Muslim, who started the process of identifying and recovering the Abacha loot. In July 1998, he set up a special investigation panel (SIP), headed by Mr Peter Gana, then a deputy commissioner at the special fraud unit (SFU) of the police force. Within four months, the SIP found evidence of organised plundering at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The panel sent a preliminary report to the government, detailing the financial crimes.

The looting was well orchestrated through the office of the national security adviser (ONSA). Mr Enrico Monfrini, the Swiss lawyer engaged by President Olusegun Obasanjo to go after the looted funds, detailed the activities of the “Abacha criminal organisation” in an article published in 2008. There was a pattern to the looting: ONSA would send dubious funding requests for “security operations” to Abacha who would then authorise the CBN to release the monies. The funds were directly remitted in cash ($1.131 billion and £413 million) and in travellers’ cheques ($50 million and £3.5 million) by the CBN to ONSA, who then organised for direct delivery to Abacha at home.

According to Monfrini, the funds would thereafter be laundered through Nigerian banks or by Nigerian or foreign businessmen to offshore accounts belonging to Mohammed, his eldest surviving son, Abba (Mohammed’s brother), Abdulkadir Abacha (Abacha’s brother) and Abubakar Bagudu (an investment banker). Monfrini said there were 36 instances that funds totalling $386 million were wired by the CBN “to foreign bank accounts abroad held by offshore companies belonging either to members of the Abacha criminal organisation or to Nigerian or foreign businessmen, who then remitted the same sums to members of the organisation”. I don’t know how this can be justified.

Recovery started during investigation by the SIP. Several assets, including the Cowry House on Akin Adesola Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, and physical cash were seized by the federal government. Numerous looted assets were also identified, forcing the Abubakar administration to promulgate the Forfeiture of Assets, Etc (Certain Persons) Decree No. 53 of May 26, 1999 to give legal backing to the recovery and restitution process. This law, now an Act of Parliament, ordered the confiscation of real estate, movable assets, and cash acquired and held illegally by Abacha’s associates, including the late Abdulazeez Arisekola Alao, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland and well-known Abacha man.

Within a short time, over $800 million was returned to the government. Growing in confidence and capitalising on European human rights laws, the Abachas started placing legal hurdles on the way of the Nigerian government to stop further recovery. The government decided to start criminal proceedings against them and their associates. The criminal proceedings and mutual assistance proceedings in Europe in 2000 forced the Abachas and their associates to disclose that they had $600 million stashed in Switzerland, $630 million in Luxembourg and $200 million in Liechtenstein. They had violated the decree by failing to disclose those assets and they were caught pants down.

Monfrini succeeded in freezing almost all the identified assets of the “Abacha criminal organisation” worldwide. It was discovered that over 20 companies paid bribes at the request of Abacha, in addition to insanely inflated contracts awarded to companies controlled by his family. Abacha was the designated beneficial owner of just three of the over 100 accounts used by the “organisation”. The designated beneficial owners of the rest were his sons and various cohorts, both civilian and military. Obasanjo had to enter into a global settlement agreement (GSA) with the Abachas in 2004 to encourage them to cough up all the looted funds in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

After Obasanjo left office, the Abachas began to play games to stall on the recovery and restitution of the remaining loot. Liechtenstein, in particular, was reluctant to return the €185 million traced to its jurisdiction because of the suits filed by the Abachas, even though the funds had been frozen by court orders since 2000. It was established by investigators that €179 million was a bribe paid by Ferrostaal AG of Germany, one of the world’s largest steel traders, when Abacha awarded them the contract for the construction of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom state. The Germans paid the bribe to Liechtenstein accounts owned by the Abachas.

If Mrs Abacha is truly looking for the “witnesses” to the stashing by her husband, she does not need to look far away from home. More so, the facts are documented in court proceedings in Nigeria and abroad as well as in an agreement signed with the government by her children. The Abachas were even allowed to keep some assets under the “complete waiver” granted by Obasanjo just to get them to make full disclosure of what disappeared from the CBN safes into their pockets. Since 1999, her family has coughed up over $2 billion of the loot traced to them, not forgetting the about $500 million returned under President Muhammadu Buhari — who once said Abacha was not a thief.

Mrs Abacha repeated the fable that her husband left robust reserves that vanished “within months” after his death. I believe this myth has come to stay, but the real fact is that when Abacha died in June 1998, our foreign reserves were about $6 billion and we had outstanding FX obligations in excess of $3 billion. There were several commitments, including hosting the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, funding NNPC JV cash calls and repaying Paris Club debts, that needed to be met. Crude oil was around $10 a barrel and OPEC had reduced production quotas. The rosy picture painted of “robust reserves” is urban legend not backed by facts. But it is a tale to be told forever.

Mrs Abacha does not like the fact that people are still criticising her husband 27 years after death disrobed him as our maximum ruler and potential life president. She, apparently, has a small point. She believes the husband has a right to be forgotten. She, indeed, has a small point. It is not as if looting started and ended with her husband. It is not as if Nigeria has been governed by leaders with clean hands and pure hearts since Abacha died. After all, many of those who colluded with him and enabled his repressive reign have since been rehabilitated into the society and celebrated as elder statesmen. So why should Abacha still be demonised after 27 years? She, in fact, has a small point.

The problem, I think, is that her husband was in a class of his own. He did more damage to our national psyche than many are ready to give him credit for. He set sickening precedents for subsequent governments. The sleazy foundation did not die with him: it, instead, became a culture. Under Abacha, we had dual exchange rates: N22 officially and N80 on the streets. The black market rate was almost four times higher than the official! Arbitrage became a new economy. The free money was used to fill the mouths of the sycophants campaigning for Abacha to transmute from military to civilian president. It was the progenitor of the insane arbitrage between 2015 and 2023.

Under Abacha, our refineries went comatose and “turnaround maintenance” contracts became an oil block on its own while fuel importation was embraced as the business of choice for his family members and associates. Subsequent governments came and discovered the dual honeypot of “turnaround maintenance” contracts and fuel importation. They refused to let go. Abacha showed the way by sowing the seed. Do I need to remind Mrs Abacha of the importation of “foul fuel” that damaged car engines across the country? Or do I really need to remind her of the assassinations and bombings — and the human rights abuses that turned Nigeria into a gigantic gulag under Abacha?

Nonetheless, I do not believe any human being is completely bad. In my books, Abacha had the best record in the management of the gains of subsidy removal. He set up the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund that did tangible projects across Nigeria. Also, I will forever give him a thumbs-up for accelerating the take-off of the Nigeria LNG. But he did far more evil than good. Today, when people try to re-write history by saying that Abacha ran the economy better, I chuckle. Memory of pain does not last. That is why some women keep visiting the labour room. But the perfidy and pains of the murderous Abacha years can never be wished away by his widow. Or his supporters. Never. Ever.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

UNCLE SAM IS 90

I was quite young when I was appointed Saturday Editor of THISDAY in 2002 by Mr Nduka Obaigbena. A senior journalist asked me: “Simon, you have risen so early in your career. I wonder how much longer you will remain in journalism.” I smiled and offered him a simple answer: “Uncle Sam.” He got my drift instantly. Sam Amuka-Pemu, whom we call “Uncle Sam”, is the publisher of Vanguard. He has been a journalist all his life, edited big publications, and written unputdownable columns. He has produced leaders in the media and other fields. He has never joined a political party or taken a political appointment, yet he is a fulfilled man. Uncle Sam remains an inspiration even at 90. Hooray!

ONE-PARTY STUFF

Addressing the national assembly on Democracy Day, President Tinubu defended the mass defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisting that he believes in the multi-party system. I have my view on these defections which I will write on later. However, not being one to resist an opportunity to throw a few stones at the opposition, Tinubu added: “Political parties fearful of members leaving may be better served by examining their internal processes and affairs rather than fearfully conjuring up demons that do not exist. For me, I would say try your best to put your house in order. I will not help you do so.” And now this: “It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray.” Ouch!

ADAMS AND PEACE

There was a major drama on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, when Senator Adams Oshiomhole and Air Peace locked horns. What we know is that Oshiomhole, former labour leader, embarked on “aluta” when he was told he arrived late for his flight and would not be boarded. What we are unsure of is his allegation that the staff were extorting other passengers to board them despite the lateness. What we know, based on video evidence, is that the former Edo governor blocked the entrance gate and delayed the flight. It is not impossible that passengers were asked for a bribe (this is Nigeria) but the ex-APC chairman did not conduct himself well. Unbecoming.

NO COMMENT

According to those tracking the development, seven places have been named after President Bola Tinubu since he was inaugurated in May 2023. At this rate, there will be at least 14 places named after him by the time he finishes his first term. For sure, he did not invent it. In fact, it has become a culture to be naming things after sitting governors and presidents. Many commentators think immortalisation, as we call it, should only be after they have left office. But that is not even what is amusing me today. A commenter wrote on X: “INEC will be announcing the 2027 Presidential election result from (the renamed) Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre.” Hahahaha.

Iran and Israel targeted each other with missiles and airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever air offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel's two largest cities, sending residents rushing into shelters as successive waves of Iranian missiles streaked across the skies. The military said its air defence systems were operating.

"In the last hour, dozens of missiles have been launched at the state of Israel from Iran, some of which were intercepted," the Israeli military said.

It said rescue teams were working at a number of locations across the country where fallen projectiles were reported, without commenting on casualties.

In Iran, several explosions were heard in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran's Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft.

Israeli media said a suspected missile came down in Tel Aviv, and a Reuters witness heard a loud boom in Jerusalem. It was unclear whether Iranian strikes or Israeli defensive measures were behind the activity.

The Fars news agency said Tehran launched waves of airstrikes on Saturday after two salvos on Friday night. One of the waves targeted Tel Aviv before dawn on Saturday, with explosions heard in the capital and Jerusalem, witnesses said.

Those were in response to Israel's attacks on Iran early on Friday against commanders, nuclear scientists, military targets and nuclear sites. Iran denies that its uranium enrichment activities are part of a secret weapons programme.

In central Tel Aviv, a high-rise building was hit, damaging the lower third of the structure in a densely populated urban area. An apartment block in nearby Ramat Gan was destroyed.

Israel's ambulance service said 34 people were injured on Friday night in the Tel Aviv area, most with minor injuries. Police later said one person had died.

The U.S. military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel on Friday, two U.S. officials said. Israel's military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles on Friday and that most were intercepted or fell short. Several buildings in and around Tel Aviv were hit.

The Israeli strikes on Iran throughout the day and the Iranian retaliation raised fears of a broader regional conflagration, although Iran's allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been decimated by Israel.

TRUMP SAYS: NOT TOO LATE

Iran's state news agency IRNA said Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel after Israel blasted Iran's huge Natanz underground nuclear site and killed its top military commanders. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.

Israeli officials said it may be some time before the extent of damage at Natanz was clear. Western countries have long accused Iran of refining uranium there to levels suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.

The above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz has been destroyed, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council on Friday. He said the U.N. was still gathering information about Israeli attacks on two other facilities, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant and at Isfahan.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel of starting a war. A senior Iranian official said nowhere in Israel would be safe and revenge would be painful.

Iran's U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said 78 people, including senior military officials, were killed in Israel's strikes on Iran and more than 320 people were wounded, most of them civilians.

He accused the U.S. of being complicit in the attacks and said it shared full responsibility for the consequences.

Israel's U.N. envoy Danny Danon said intelligence had confirmed that within days Iran would have produced enough fissile material for multiple bombs. He called Israel's operation "an act of national preservation."

Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. The U.N. nuclear watchdog concluded this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.

U.S. President Donald Trump said it was not too late for Tehran to halt the Israeli bombing campaign by reaching a deal on its nuclear programme.

Tehran had been engaged in talks with the Trump administration on a deal to curb its nuclear programme to replace one that Trump abandoned in 2018. Tehran rejected the last U.S. offer.

The talks are due to resume in Oman on Sunday but Iran signalled it might not join.

"The other side (the U.S.) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless," Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday. "You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran's territory."

Reuters