I Watched As My Five Children Were Slaughtered, Benue Woman Tells U.S. Congress

…U.S. Lawmaker Seek Jackson’s Pardon

Msurshima Apeh, a survivor of the June 2025 Yelewata attack in Benue State, on Thursday testified before the United States Congress on how she watched her five children brutally killed during the assault.

The attack was a massacre of Christian villagers in June 2025 in Yelwata village. Over 100 people were reportedly killed and about 3,000 were displaced.

According to Pope Leo XIV, “the majority of those killed were internally displaced people who were being housed at a local Catholic mission.”

The U.S Congress hearing was part of deliberations on President Donald Trump’s decision to return Nigeria to the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list over allegations of widespread religious persecution.

Narrating the tragedy before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Apeh said the attackers stormed the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp around 9pm.

According to her, “Around 9pm that night, Fulani terrorists struck where we were sleeping. We were locked inside the Yelwata camp and they attacked us with cutlasses and guns. Later, they poured petrol on the building and set most of it ablaze.”

Apeh recounted how she escaped by climbing a tree, from where she watched her children being murdered.

“I saw a tree, climbed up and hid myself. My five children, left below, were crying as they were slaughtered by the attackers,” she said, adding that she later fled through the bush and was eventually rescued and relocated to another camp.

The Yelewata attack, allegedly carried out by armed herdsmen, claimed several lives, including civilians and security operatives. Five security personnel, two soldiers, a police officer and two others, were among the dead. Homes, shops and market stalls were also burnt, leaving scores displaced, including a family of 15 who were all killed.

Meanwhile, U.S. Congressman Riley M. Moore has urged the Nigerian government to grant a pardon to Sunday Jackson, a farmer sentenced to death for killing a Fulani herdsman in alleged self-defense.

Jackson was reportedly attacked on his farm in the Codonti Forest area of Adamawa State in 2014 by Buba Bawuro, a herdsman who had encroached on his farmland with cattle.

Jackson alleged that Bawuro stabbed him multiple times during the confrontation, prompting him to wrestle the knife away and stab the attacker fatally in a struggle for survival.

Despite maintaining that he acted in self-defense, Jackson was arrested, charged with murder, and sentenced to death by hanging in 2021, a judgment upheld by the Nigerian Supreme Court on March 7, 2025.

Speaking at the congressional hearing on Nigeria’s CPC redesignation, Moore criticized the verdict as unjust.

“I would urge the Nigerian government to consider pardoning Sunday Jackson. He was defending his life against a Fulani militant. That militant lost his life in the struggle, yet Jackson now faces the death penalty. Where is the justice in that?” Moore asked.