Suspected armed herdsmen have launched a fresh attack on the Yelewata community in Nyiev council ward of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, killing a farmer.

The victim, identified as Hemen Ayua Jonyi, was said to have been brutally hacked to death with a machete while on the way to his yam farm, located less than a kilometre from the village.

The incident has thrown the community into mourning, as residents lament the repeated wave of violence that has devastated the area.

New Telegraph reports that the killing is the latest in a string of attacks on Yelewata. Just two weeks ago, three residents were killed and three others wounded in a similar raid.

Less than three months earlier, more than 200 villagers were massacred in what remains one of the deadliest assaults in the history of the community, allegedly carried out by suspected herdsmen.

Locals fear that the renewed onslaught could further worsen insecurity and food shortages in the agrarian community, which has already suffered significant displacement and loss of livelihoods due to the sustained violence.