At least 218 people were killed and more than 6,000 displaced after a spate of devastating attacks on mostly Christian villages in Benue State, a territory in the Middle Belt region of northern Nigeria. Islamic Fulani militants are suspected to be behind all six of the attacks, which targeted men, women, and children.

The attacks happened between June 8 and June 14, with the deadliest on June 13 when a displacement camp numbering 400 people in Yelewata was attacked. The militants were first resisted by the military, only for soldiers to retreat to a market area where IDPs were taking refuge in storage facilities.

Shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greater”), militants burned the buildings and attacked people with guns and machetes. Some 200 people were killed and five injured. Earlier that day, six civilians and three soldiers were killed in separate incidents.

The first of this latest surge in attacks occurred in the village of Udei, when attackers shot and killed two farmers and injured another as the victims worked on their field. On June 11, two women were killed as they worked on their land near the village of Tse Ivokor. The next day, Amos Uorayev, an IDP and Protection Volunteer with Foundation for Justice Development and Peace, set out with four other youths to recover bodies, only to be ambushed and killed.

On a Sunday in June, thousands gathered on the streets of Makurdi—the capital of Benue State—to protest the killings, with police firing teargas to disperse them. “Listen to us, we are tired, please stop Benue killings!” said a young woman at the protest.

Adapted from OpenDoors US