Pope Leo calls for peace, prayer after 200 Christians slaughtered in Nigeria
Yelewata had been considered a safe location for displaced families and was housing thousands of people. That reputation is now no more.
Red Confidential/Shutterstock
Michael
Haynes,
Snr.
Vatican
Correspondent
Mon Jun 16, 2025 - 2:38 pm EDT
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has urged prayers and implementation of peace after some 200 Christians were murdered in Nigeria over the weekend.
Continuing his focus on the message of peace, Leo XIV on Sunday condemned the mass murder of a number of Christians in Nigeria. Closing his Angelus address, the American Pope said:
During the night between 13 and 14 June, a terrible massacre took place in the city of Yelwata, located in the local administrative area of Gouman, in the state of Benue, Nigeria. Around two hundred people were killed with extreme cruelty. The majority of those killed were internally displaced people who were being housed at a local Catholic mission.
I pray that security, justice and peace prevail in Nigeria, a beloved country that has suffered various forms of violence. I pray in particular for the rural Christian communities in the state of Benue, who have unceasingly been victims of violence.
According to local clergy, cited by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Islamic militants stormed Yelewata, in Benue State – an epicenter of Christian persecution. They first tried to attack St. Joseph’s Church, where some 700 displaced people were sleeping. This attempt was thwarted by local police, ACN reported.
The Islamic group then made their way to the public square, “where they reportedly used fuel to set fire to the doors of the displaced people’s accommodation, before opening fire in an area where more than 500 people were asleep.”
The Diocese of Makurdi estimated that around 200 people died during the “killing spree” of three hours, and many more families have fled from their shelters as a result of the attack.
According to the parish priest, Yelewata had been considered a safe location for displaced families and was housing thousands of people. That reputation is now no more.
READ: As Christians continue to be killed in Nigeria, the West remains largely silent
“There is no question about who carried out the attack. They were definitely Fulanis. They were shouting ‘Alahu Akhbar’,” added the priest about the attackers.
Another cleric from the Diocese of Makurdi lamented that “this is by far worst atrocity we have seen. There has been nothing even close.”
Benue state has seen an increased rate of attacks on its majority Christian population, and the local bishop has described such targeting as “genocide.”
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“No nation watches her citizens slaughtered like animals and says there is nothing to be done. It’s genocide,” Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe said earlier this month.
Nigeria has consistently emerged as one of the most dangerous countries on earth to practice Christianity. The 2025 Global Christian Relief (GCR) Red List report named Nigeria as the most dangerous region for Christians in the world. Some 8,000 Christians were killed in 2023 by Islamic militants, and over50,000 Christians have been killed since 2009.
READ: Nigeria, 3 other African countries are deadliest for Christians: report
ACN document that “Nigeria has become known as the most dangerous country to be a Christian. In any given year, the numbers of Christians killed by extremist groups is rarely less than 4,000 – often more than in the rest of the world combined.”
Watchdog organization Open Doors described Nigeria as an “epicenter” for displacement of Christians, as thousands are forced to flee from their homes. Open Doors reported that “almost half” of the global total of 210,000 displaced Christians are from Nigeria, a country listed as the seventh most dangerous in the organization’s list of the top 50 most dangerous countries to be a Christian.
READ: Nigerian bishop confirms nearly 1,000 faithful in one day
The Nigerian Catholic bishops have described the persistent violence in the region as “an Islamic war aimed at targeting predominantly Christian tribes.”
Earlier this year, Bishop Anagbe made a plea to the U.S. to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern, due to the anti-Christian attacks.
Addressing the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Africa Subcommittee, the bishop commented that “Islamist extremists are fiercely contesting the position, control and governing law of the land.”
“Nigeria has the capacity to handle this. It’s just the will that is not there,” Anagbe told ACI Africa recently.
TOPICS
TAGGED AS
- Anti-christian
- benue state
- Christian Persecution
- islamic militants
- Leo XIV
- Nigeria
- Persecution Of Christians
- Pope Leo XIV
- Yelewata
