Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Nearly 200 people have been killed by armed men in separate attacks in remote villages in central and northern Nigeria, a local lawmaker, residents and police said on Wednesday, as security forces searched for survivors and chased the attackers.
In central Kwara state, gunmen attacked the Woro community on Tuesday leaving at least 170 people dead, the lawmaker for the area Saidu Baba Ahmed said by phone.
It was the deadliest assault recorded this year in the district bordering Niger state, an area increasingly targeted by gunmen who raid villages, kidnap residents and loot livestock.
Ahmed said the gunmen rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and executed them. The lawmaker shared photographs of dead bodies with Reuters, which the agency was not immediately able to verify.
Villagers fled into surrounding bushland during the attack, he said. The gunmen torched homes and shops.
Police said “scores were killed,” without giving a figure.
“As I’m speaking to you now, I’m in the village along with military personnel, sorting dead bodies and combing the surrounding areas for more,” Ahmed said.
Several people were still missing on Wednesday morning, he said.
Residents told Reuters the gunmen demanded during a sermon that locals ditch their allegiance to the Nigerian state and switch to Sharia Islamic law. When the villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire.
Kwara police spokesperson Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi said the police and military have been mobilized to the area for a search-and-rescue operation, but declined to provide casualty details.
A ‘cowardly expression of frustration’
Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, told The Associated Press that hundreds of men attacked and scores were killed, but they did not have exact numbers because of the area’s remoteness — about eight hours from the state capital and near Nigeria’s border with Benin.
Footage from the scene on local television show bodies lying in blood on the ground, some with their hands tied, as well as burning houses.
Kwara Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said in statement Wednesday the violence was a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” in response to ongoing military operations against armed extremists in the state.
Nigeria is in the grip of a complex security crisis, with an insurgency by Islamic militants in the northeast alongside a surge in kidnappings for ransom by gunmen across the northwest and north-central regions in recent months. Intercommunal violence is also prevalent in the central states.
Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told The Associated Press that Tuesday attacks in Woro and Nuku were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State group.
But James Barnett, a researcher at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said the culprits were most likely a faction of Boko Haram that has been responsible for other recent massacres in the area. No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks.
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the Lakurawa has roots in neighbouring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria’s border communities following a 2023 military coup.
Separate attack kills 13
In a separate attack in the northern Katsina state, gunmen killed at least 21 people, moving from house to house to shoot their victims, residents and local police said.
The attack broke a six-month peace pact between the community and the armed gang.
It also highlighted the dilemma faced by residents in Nigeria’s remote north, where some have sought peace with the armed gangs that terrorize them. Residents typically pool money and food, which they give to bandits so they are not attacked.
Last week, armed extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 36 people during separate attacks on a construction site and on an army base.
Nigeria has been under pressure to restore security since U.S. President Donald Trump accused it last year of failing to protect Christians after numerous Islamist attacks and mass kidnappings. U.S. forces struck what they described as terrorist targets on Dec. 25.
The Nigerian authorities say they are co-operating with Washington to improve security and have denied there is systematic persecution of Christians.