Sokoto, Nigeria — Armed attackers killed at least 162 people in coordinated assaults on the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara state on Tuesday evening, a local lawmaker said.
Mohammed Omar Bio, the member of parliament representing the area, said the raids were carried out by Lakurawa, an armed group he described as affiliated with the Islamic State. No group has formally claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, secretary of the Red Cross in Kwara, said the organisation has so far been unable to reach the remote communities—about eight hours from the state capital and close to the border with Benin—where “scores of people were killed.” Local television footage showed bodies on the ground, some with their hands tied, and several homes burning.
Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq called the violence a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells,” saying the strikes appeared to be a reaction to ongoing military operations against militants in the state.
The massacre adds to a widening security crisis in Nigeria. The country continues to grapple with an insurgency by Islamic militants in the northeast, while kidnappings and armed raids have risen across the northwest and north-central regions. Separately on Tuesday, unknown gunmen killed at least 13 people in Doma village in Katsina state, police spokesman Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu said. Last week, extremists linked to Boko Haram carried out attacks in the northeast that killed at least 36 people at a construction site and an army base.
Several groups in Nigeria have ties to the Islamic State, including the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in the northeast and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province, locally called Lakurawa, which has been active in northwest border communities. The Nigerian military has said Lakurawa has roots in neighbouring Niger and expanded activity in border areas following a 2023 coup.
James Barnett, a researcher at the Hudson Institute, suggested the Kwara attack may have been carried out by Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS), a Boko Haram faction implicated in recent massacres.
The United States has taken limited actions in response to the deteriorating security situation: US Africa Command sent a small team of military officers to Nigeria, and US forces conducted airstrikes in December against IS-affiliated militants there. Nigeria has also been the subject of heightened US diplomatic scrutiny amid comments from US President Donald Trump threatening action and saying the country has not done enough to protect its Christian population.
