{"id":167021,"date":"2025-06-15T19:04:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T18:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue"},"modified":"2025-06-15T20:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T19:29:43","slug":"pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo condemns \u2018terrible massacre\u2019 in Benue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Pope Leo on Sunday offered prayers for the victims of what he described as a \u201cterrible massacre\u201d in Benue State, Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Over 200 people were reportedly brutally killed in the Yelewata community of Guma Local Government Area in one of the latest incidents of herdsmen attacks in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during his Sunday Angelus prayer, the pontiff said most of the victims were internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had sought shelter at a local Catholic mission in the area, making the attack even more horrifying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am praying for security, justice, and peace in Nigeria,\u201d Pope Leo said from St. Peter\u2019s Square.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a special way, I am thinking of the rural Christian communities of Benue State, who have been relentless victims of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Pope Leo on Sunday offered prayers for the victims of what he described as a \u201cterrible massacre\u201d in Benue State, Nigeria. Over 200 people were reportedly brutally killed in the Yelewata community of Guma Local Government Area in one of the latest incidents of herdsmen attacks in the state. Speaking during his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":167020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[331,254,17188],"class_list":["post-167021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-benue","tag-nigeria","tag-pope-leo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pope Leo condemns \u2018terrible massacre\u2019 in Benue - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pope Leo on Sunday offered prayers for the victims of what he described as a \u201cterrible massacre\u201d in Benue State, Nigeria ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Leo condemns \u2018terrible massacre\u2019 in Benue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pope Leo on Sunday offered prayers for the victims of what he described as a \u201cterrible massacre\u201d in Benue State, Nigeria ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-15T18:04:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-15T19:29:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750003195.452347.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Pope Leo condemns \u2018terrible massacre\u2019 in Benue\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-15T18:04:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-15T19:29:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue\"},\"wordCount\":143,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1750003195.452347.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Benue\",\"Nigeria\",\"Pope Leo\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/pope-leo-condemns-terrible-massacre-in-benue\",\"name\":\"Pope Leo condemns \u2018terrible massacre\u2019 in Benue - 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