Charred bodies, shattered lives after gunmen kill 100 in Nigeria

By Abraham Achirga

The gunmen attacked after dark and chased farmer Fidelis Adidi away from the central Nigerian village of Yelwata. The next morning he returned to find the charred remains of one of his two wives and four of his children.

They had been living in a room he had rented in the market, in an attempt to keep them safe from a wave of clashes between cattle herders and farmers in the country’s Middle Belt region.

His second wife and another child were badly wounded in the assault that began on Friday night and, according to Amnesty International, killed around 100 people in the town in Benue region.

“My body is weak and my heart keeps racing,” the 37-year-old told Reuters as he stood outside the room, surveying the damage. “I lost five of my family members.”

In another room in the market, bodies lay burned beyond recognition next to blackened