{"id":39560,"date":"2026-07-14T11:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=39560"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:20:29","slug":"gunmen-kill-18-people-in-nigerias-benue-state","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/gunmen-kill-18-people-in-nigerias-benue-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen kill 18 people in Nigeria’s Benue state"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gunmen killed at least 18 people in Nigeria’s northern Benue state in \u200ba weekend attack, residents and local officials \u200csaid, triggering a march by angry locals who blocked roads in protest at the violence.<\/div>\n
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Benue has \u200bbeen the frequent scene of clashes involving \u200bfarming communities and cattle herders, as well \u2060as attacks by armed groups, in \u200bconflicts often driven by competition over land and \u200bresources.<\/div>\n
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Benue police spokesperson Udeme Edet gave a lower death toll for the attack, which took place early \u200bon Sunday, saying eight people had died \u200band five were wounded.<\/div>\n
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The incident occurred in the Otukpo-Nobi community \u200cof \u2060the Otukpo Local Government Area, where residents said armed men, suspected by locals to be Fulani herders, opened fire.<\/div>\n
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Local \u2060government chair Maxwell Ogiri linked the violence to the killing of \u200bthe chair of the herders’ association \u200btwo \u2060weeks ago.<\/div>\n
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.<\/div>\n
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Women and youths from the affected community \u2060later \u200bmarched through the town \u200bof Otukpo to protest.<\/div>\n
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–Reuters–<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14084,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-39560","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Gunmen killed at least 18 people in Nigeria","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39561,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39560\/revisions\/39561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}