At least 162 people were killed during coordinated militant attacks on two villages in western Nigeria Kwara state, highlighting the country’s deepening security crisis, a lawmaker said on Wednesday.
The assaults targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku on Tuesday evening, according to Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the affected area. He said the attacks were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed extremist group linked to the Islamic State (IS). No group has officially claimed responsibility.
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Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, secretary of the Red Cross in Kwara state, said aid workers have been unable to access the communities due to their remote location near Nigeria’s border with Benin, roughly eight hours from the state capital. He confirmed that “scores of people were killed,” though rescue and verification efforts remain ongoing.
At least 162 people killed by armed men in separate attacks in remote villages in Nigeria. Timothy Obiezu has more from Abuja pic.twitter.com/92hfzWZseZ
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Local television footage showed bodies lying in pools of blood, some with their hands bound, alongside homes set ablaze. Survivors reportedly fled into nearby forests as the attackers rampaged through the villages.
Kwara state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq condemned the violence, calling it a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” responding to recent military operations against armed groups in the region.
The attacks come as Nigeria faces a complex and worsening security landscape. Islamist insurgents continue to operate in the northeast, while criminal gangs and militant groups have intensified kidnappings and mass killings across the northwest and north-central regions.
Separately, police said unknown gunmen killed at least 13 people on Tuesday in the village of Doma in Katsina state. No arrests have been announced and no group has claimed responsibility for that attack.
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Security analysts note that Nigeria is confronting multiple IS-linked factions, including the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province, locally referred to as Lakurawa. The Nigerian military has previously said Lakurawa originated in neighboring Niger and expanded its activities in Nigeria following the 2023 military coup there.
The escalating violence has drawn international attention, with the United States recently deploying a small military advisory team to Nigeria and carrying out airstrikes against IS-affiliated militants late last year.