Armed extremists attacked the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara state overnight, killing at least 162 people in one of the deadliest assaults in recent months, a lawmaker and medics said. Mohammed Omar Bio, the member of parliament representing the area, told the Associated Press the attackers were members of the Lakurawa, an Islamist armed group affiliated with the self-styled Islamic State.
Initial reports early Wednesday put the death toll at 35 to 40, later updated to 67 and subsequently raised past 100. The Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, said the organization had not yet been able to reach the communities. The villages lie in a remote area about eight hours from the state capital and near Nigeria’s border with Benin.
Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq called the attack a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” in response to ongoing military operations against armed extremists in the state, without providing casualty details. Nigeria’s military has intensified operations against jihadists and armed bandits in the area in recent weeks and said last month it launched “sustained coordinated offensive operations” with notable successes.
Kwara was also the focus of US airstrikes in December, when American forces struck Islamic State militants at Nigeria’s request.
Nationwide, Nigeria’s security forces continue to struggle to maintain control over large areas. The country faces an insurgency by Islamic militants in the northeast, a surge in kidnappings and ransom demands by gunmen and bandits across the north and northwest, and intercommunal violence in several states. School abductions late last year forced education centers to close for weeks, and the former defense minister resigned in December amid the security crisis.
In separate recent incidents, gunmen killed 23 people in a reprisal attack in Doma village, Katsina state, after military raids that reportedly killed 27 militants. Attacks last week on a construction site and an army base in the northeast claimed at least 36 lives.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez