More than 160 people have been killed in two villages in western Nigeria in the country's deadliest armed assaults this year, as communities reel from repeated acts of violence by jihadists and other armed groups.
The death toll from Tuesday's attacks in Woro and Nuku in Kwara state stood at 162 on Wednesday afternoon, according to Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area. He told the Associated Press that the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with Islamic State, had carried out the attacks. No one has claimed responsibility.
Sa'idu Baba Ahmed, a politician in the Kaiama region, said gunmen had rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and killed them. The attackers also torched homes and shops. Many people fled into surrounding bushland with gunshot wounds, and the whereabouts of several people, including the village's traditional king, were unknown.
Residents told Reuters the gunmen were jihadists who often preached in the village and demanded locals ditch allegiance to the Nigerian state and adopt sharia law. When villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire during Tuesday's sermon. According to Amnesty International, the gunmen killed more than 170 people, razed homes and looted shops. The rights group said the gunmen had been sending warning letters to villagers for more than five months.
Kwara state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq condemned the attack as a cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells following counter-terrorism campaigns. Kwara borders Niger state, which is increasingly targeted by armed groups. Nigeria is in the grip of interlinked security crises, including a jihadist insurgency in the north-east and north-west, and a surge in looting and kidnapping by armed groups known as 'bandits'.
In a separate attack on Tuesday, gunmen killed at least 13 people in Doma village in Katsina state, despite peace deals brokered between armed groups and villagers. The military has intensified operations against jihadists and armed bandits, claiming notable successes in Kwara state last month.
