“Nigerian Policemen Told Me They Had No Bullets” – Benue Massacre Survivor Recounts Horror As Herdsmen Butchered Villagers

A survivor of the Yelwata massacre in Benue State has made a chilling revelation that police officers admitted they were out of ammunition and unable to defend fleeing villagers.

The police inaction, he noted, left residents at the mercy of armed herders who slaughtered scores and burned homes during the violent overnight attack.

The survivor, who sustained machete wounds while trying to escape, recounted in harrowing detail how security personnel in Yelwata told him to seek help from soldiers because they had “only one or two bullets left” for self-defence.

“My first step outside the shop, they macheted me,” he told reporters. “Then I ran to the police station, but the security there told me I should go to the soldiers because they were left with only one or two bullets in their guns for defence.”

The attack reportedly began along Lafayette Road, with gunshots echoing through Yelwata as armed assailants stormed the community late at night.

Local security forces initially engaged the attackers in a gunfight, but the survivor said the assailants’ firepower quickly overwhelmed them.

“They kept shooting, and the security would shoot back, but the security couldn’t protect us because these people had more powerful weapons,” he said.

He described how the attackers, shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they advanced, targeted both the old and new market areas of Yelwata, breaking into shops where families were hiding.

When they reached his shop, they reportedly broke down the door and began killing people room by room.

“They set fire to the roof. The flames started burning us. We couldn’t stay inside any longer. If you rushed out, they would either shoot you or machete you,” he said.

In a desperate bid to save his family, he urged his wife and children to flee in one direction while he escaped in another. He later discovered they had been killed.

“My wife and kids went out in one direction, and they wiped them away. I tried to escape through another direction. Before I could even take my first step outside the shop, they macheted me,” he said, pointing to deep wounds.

The survivor’s revelation about police running out of ammunition is likely to fuel growing outrage over the capacity of Nigerian security forces to protect rural communities, especially in Benue State, which has been a flashpoint for deadly clashes between armed herders and farming communities.