Nigeria — At least 162 people were killed on Tuesday evening when armed extremists launched coordinated attacks on Woro and Nuku villages in Kwara State, marking one of the deadliest assaults recorded in western Nigeria in recent months.
The lawmaker representing the affected constituency, Hon. Mohammed Omar Bio, confirmed the casualty figures, stating that the attackers were believed to be Lakurawa militants, a lesser-known armed group linked to the Islamic State (IS) network. No group has officially claimed responsibility for the attacks as of Wednesday.
Officials of the Nigerian Red Cross earlier reported that “scores of people” were killed, but access to the affected communities has been severely limited due to their remote location near Nigeria’s border with Benin, approximately eight hours from the state capital. Emergency responders have struggled to reach survivors and assess the full humanitarian impact.
In a statement released Wednesday, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq described the assault as a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” facing sustained pressure from ongoing military operations in the region. Security sources say the attacks may represent retaliatory violence following recent counterterrorism actions.
Nigeria continues to grapple with a multi-dimensional security crisis, including Islamist insurgency in the northeast, banditry and mass kidnappings across the northwest, and expanding extremist activity in the north-central region. In a related incident on Tuesday, gunmen killed at least 13 people in Doma village, Katsina State, according to police authorities.
Security analysts note that armed groups operating in Nigeria now include multiple IS-affiliated factions, notably the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP)—locally known as Lakurawa. The Nigerian military has previously stated that Lakurawa militants have roots in neighbouring Niger and expanded their operations into Nigeria’s border communities following the 2023 military coup in that country.
