A Nigerian mother who lived through the June 2025 Yelwata massacre in Benue State has given an emotional account of her family’s tragedy before the United States Congress.

Speaking virtually on Thursday, November 20, Msurshima Apeh recounted how armed attackers stormed her camp at night, killing her five children in an assault she described as “pure horror.”

Apeh addressed members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa during a hearing prompted by President Donald Trump’s recent decision to return Nigeria to the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list over alleged religious-related abuses. Her testimony brought the chamber to silence as she relived the night her world collapsed.

According to Apeh, the attack began shortly after 9 p.m. while families inside the Yelwata displaced persons camp were asleep. She alleged that the assailants—whom she identified as armed Fulani attackers—surrounded the facility, preventing anyone from escaping before unleashing a wave of violence.

“They locked us inside and began butchering people with machetes while shooting,” she said, her voice breaking as she spoke. “We were completely trapped.”

Apeh described how, after the killings, the attackers doused structures with petrol and set them ablaze, leaving survivors to flee through the chaos. In her desperation to escape, she spotted a tree and climbed it, hiding among the branches as her children cried for help below.

“My five children were right under me,” she said quietly. “I heard their voices. I saw what happened to them. There was nothing I could do.”

She eventually escaped into the bush, where she spent hours alone before rescue teams arrived and moved her to a safer location.

The Yelwata attack, carried out in June 2025 by suspected armed herdsmen, left a trail of devastation across the community. Homes, shops, and market stalls were burnt, and both civilians and security personnel were counted among the dead. Entire families were wiped out—one reportedly losing 15 members in a single night.

Now living in a new displacement camp, Apeh says she hopes her testimony will draw international attention to the suffering of countless communities across Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where recurrent violence has displaced thousands.

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Her emotional appeal before U.S. lawmakers adds new urgency to ongoing debates about security, human rights, and the international community’s role in addressing Nigeria’s deepening crisis.