Pope Leo has prayed for the victims of a “terrible massacre” in Benue State, Nigeria where around 200 people were “brutally killed” in Yelwata, in the Guma Local Government Area on the night of the 13th/14th June.
Speaking just before delivering the Sunday Angelus prayer, the Pope said, most of them internally displaced persons “sheltered by the local Catholic mission”.
He prayed for “security, justice, and peace” in Nigeria, adding that he was thinking in particular of the “rural Christian communities of the Benue State who have been relentless victims of violence”.
Responding to the attack, Amnesty International Nigeria on Saturday called on Nigerian authorities to “immediately end the almost daily bloodshed in Benue State and bring the actual perpetrators to justice”.
