CLAIM: There is an Ongoing War Between Herders And Vigilantes In Benue State
On June 30, 2025, a Facebook page Agozi commedy posted a video with the claim that there is an ongoing war in Benue State, Nigeria, where local vigilantes allegedly killed 35 Fulani herdsmen’s cows and 14 herdsmen who were said to be terrorising the community. The 13 seconds video shows a clash between two groups, with cutlasses and sticks, captioned, “Ongoing war in Benue state as local vigilante killed 35 Fulani Herdsmen cow and 14 herdsmen that are terrorising the community”
VERIFICATION
Benue State has been plagued by violent clashes between armed herdsmen and farming communities recently, but there are no credible reports confirming this specific incident. Last month, there were attacks in Benue, especially in communities like Yelewata, Gwer West, where scores of villagers and herders were killed, but there is no evidence of a declared or formal “war.” According to The Guardian, the conflict is part of a broader, longstanding herder–farmer violence in Nigeria, not a localised vigilante war.
The Fact-Checker could not find any evidence corroborating the claim that 14 herdsmen were recently killed by vigilantes but there have been related incidents in the past. For example, a 2019 incident involving 207 cows who were shot and killed while grazing. The herdsmen accused the state government of deliberately targeting their livestock under the guise of enforcing the state’s anti-open grazing law. Similarly, a 2019 Punch newspaper report revealed how villagers from Agatu community killed 3 herdsmen and their cattle for allegedly trespassing into some farmlands, as confirmed by the Benue state police command.
However, when NV-A captured a snapshot from the recent video in circulation and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. The search results reveal that this video has been in circulation for the past two years to mislead and misinform the public about violent clashes in various places. The results also revealed that the footage was recorded during a violent clash in Kinshasa, Congo in 2013 between two rival gangs and is unrelated to any recent events in Benue State, Nigeria.
CONCLUSION
The claim of an ongoing war between herdsmen and vigilantes is MISLEADING as the video in circulation originated in Congo Kinshasa and there is no supporting evidence for the claim.
