Benue State Governor Hyacith Alia has accelerated resettlement efforts for victims and survivors of the 2025 Yelewata attacks, blending cash aid with new housing and health initiatives to help thousands of displaced families return home.
Technical Adviser on Media, Publicity, and Strategic Communication to the Benue State Governor Solomon Iorpev in a statement on Tuesday, said Governor Hyacinth Alia’s administration has disbursed N56million in direct payments to 1,000 verified households—N50,000 each—to cover essentials like food, medicine, and small businesses.
Iorpev said a technical committee oversaw beneficiary verification to ensure that the funds reached those in need.
An essential element of the programme the statement said, is returning 5,883 internally displaced people (IDPs) to their ancestral lands.
Those enrolled now qualify for the Benue State Health Insurance Scheme, while construction has begun on medical clinics and sanitation facilities to combat risks like Lassa fever.
In Yelewata, workers are erecting 60 two-bedroom homes and classroom blocks to replace makeshift camps.
Fifty-three of the homes have reached lintel level, signaling rapid progress toward stable communities.
The Technical aide to the Governor in the statement described the efforts as a model for “humane, data-driven” recovery, though independent verification of impacts remains limited.
NewsQuest reports that suspected armed men raided the Yelwata community area in the early hours of June 13 and 14, 2025, killing over 150 people—primarily women, children, and an IDP camp while burning homes and displacing thousands.
Reports had indicated that the armed group surrounded the farming community and slaughtered most of the villagers in their sleep.
President Bola Tinubu visited Makurdi the Benue State capital on June 18, 2025, following the Yelwata massacre, promising justice over the incident.
Security agencies have since arrested nine suspects in relation to the incidents who are being tried in court.
