A Benue mother, Msurshima Apeh, has relived the night she watched terrorists kill her five children during an attack on Yelwata IDP camp, describing the incident as a horror no parent should ever witness.
Apeh appeared virtually before the United States Congress where she narrated how armed men stormed the camp on June 13, 2025, attacking sleeping families without warning.
“When we went to sleep that night around 9 pm, the Fulani terrorists attacked us where we were sleeping. We were locked inside the camp in Yelwata, and they were butchering them with cutlasses and shooting guns as well,” she said.
She explained that the attackers later set part of the camp ablaze. “When the torture finished at some point, they poured petrol on the building and the majority of them were set ablaze,” she told the lawmakers.
In a desperate effort to survive, she climbed a tree while her children remained helpless below.
“In the course of this action, I saw a tree when I lifted my eyes. I raised my hands to the tree and climbed up where I was able to hide myself,” she said.
From that position, she watched the killers descend on her children.
“My five children I left below were crying, and in my presence, they were being slaughtered by the terrorists,” she recounted.
Apeh said she later fled into the bush until rescuers arrived. “I ran into the bush at some point, and those who came for rescue would now bring me out of that place at some point, and I was able to witness the whole drama. When the people came, we were relocated to a new camp,” she added.
The Yelwata attack left dozens dead and displaced many families, marking one of the most devastating incidents in Benue’s long history of recurrent violence.
