December 24, 2025 l By Dalena Reporters
In a harrowing escalation of insecurity in Nigeria’s volatile Middle Belt region, at least five residents of the Ortese community in Guma Local Government Area, Benue State, have been confirmed dead and several others kidnapped following a brutal gunmen raid along the Igyungu Aze–Yogbo Road, local sources and security reports indicate.
Sources attributed the assault to suspected armed herders, reflecting a deepening pattern of rural attacks that have plagued this region for years and underscoring the failure of security apparatuses to stem recurring violence that has driven widespread displacement and fear among civilians.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, saw assailants stage a coordinated ambush by blocking the key thoroughfare and unleashing indiscriminate gunfire on motorists and villagers alike, with eyewitness accounts describing a chaotic scene of death and terror that forced families to flee into surrounding bushes as youths mounted grassroots searches for missing neighbours. According to local testimonies, among the identified victims are Solo Uchi, Alhaji Iorlaha, and Tersoo Uker, the latter of whom was an internally displaced person gathering roofing grass outside an overcrowded camp when he was killed, highlighting the vulnerability of already marginalised populations in the conflict zone.
Survivors reported that assailants pursued fleeing residents beyond the road, firing into thick vegetation and capturing an unconfirmed number of people alive, further exacerbating community fears of a rising death toll and unknown fates for those abducted.
The ambush has triggered a mass exodus as families abandon their homes to seek safety in neighbouring communities, with one resident lamenting, “Our people are no longer safe here,” a sentiment echoed across Guma as panic grips the region. The attack follows a spate of similar assaults in the state, including recent fatalities in nearby communities and broader conflict-driven massacres that have seen scores killed and hundreds displaced throughout 2025, reflecting a chronic security crisis that has drawn both local alarm and national scrutiny. Efforts to obtain comment from security officials, including the Police Public Relations Officer, were unsuccessful at the time of reporting, adding to frustrations over perceived governmental inaction in protecting rural communities from armed aggression.
Human rights groups and analysts have warned that these recurring raids not only deepen humanitarian distress but also intensify long-standing grievances between farming communities and pastoralist elements, often labelled herders, whose movements and clashes over land, water and grazing routes fuel cycles of retaliatory violence across Benue and surrounding states.
With the toll of insecurity mounting and residents voicing urgent appeals for governmental intervention, the latest ambush in Ortese underscores the perilous reality faced by civilians and the pressing need for robust security reforms to halt further loss of life and restore a semblance of peace to affected regions.