Armed militants razed 11 houses and injured residents during a midday assault on a village in Benue State, but were driven off by patrolling security teams in the latest outbreak of violence plaguing the region, officials said Saturday.
The attack targeted Anwase in Kwande district, a community still reeling from a Christmas 2024 raid that claimed over 28 lives, with assailants fleeing upon encountering officers deployed to a nearby village hit days earlier.
Benue police spokeswoman DSP Udeme Edet confirmed the incursion, saying: “It is true, there was attack on Anwase but our gallant officers repelled them and there was no casualty.”0b2286
Former local councillor Lawrence Akerigbe, who inspected the site Saturday, detailed the chaos: “The attack on Anwase happened at about noon on Friday, the invaders burnt down about 11 houses. Some people were also injured during the attack but fortunately, security operatives that were deployed to Abande community that was attacked three days earlier were on patrol when they ran into the invaders.”
He added: “Immediately the bandits sighted the security men they fled, that was what saved the situation.”
Akerigbe lamented the toll, noting no fewer than 76 deaths in Kwande over the past two years from repeated bandit strikes, underscoring Nigeria’s ongoing struggle with armed groups in its central belt that have displaced communities and fueled humanitarian crises.
