Attacks by armed extremists on two villages in western Nigeria have killed 162 people, one of the deadliest attacks in recent months, lawmakers said Wednesday.
The villages of Wolo and Nuku in Kwara state were targeted in the attack on Tuesday night, Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament who represents the area, told The Associated Press.
He said the attack was carried out by the Islamic State-linked militant group Raqlawa. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, Kwara state Red Cross secretary, said the organization was unable to reach the area where “a large number of people were killed” due to its remote location. The area is approximately eight hours from the state capital and near the Nigeria-Benin border.
Footage from the scene shown on local television showed bodies lying on the ground covered in blood, their hands tied, and houses on fire.
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq described the attack as a “despicable expression of discontent by terrorist organizations” in response to ongoing military operations against armed militants in the province.
Nigeria is mired in a complex security crisis, with an insurgency by Islamic extremists in the northeast and a sharp increase in kidnappings for ransom by armed groups in the northwest and north-central regions in recent months.
Separately on Tuesday, unidentified gunmen killed at least 13 people in Doma village in northwestern Katsina state, police spokesperson Abubakar Sadiku Aliyu announced. No one has claimed responsibility for this attack, but
Boko Haram militants in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 36 people in separate attacks on construction sites and military bases last week.
Nigeria’s armed groups include at least two Islamic State affiliates, an offshoot of the Boko Haram militant group known as Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), known locally as Laklawa and prominent in the northwest.
Nigeria’s military has said in the past that Laklawa’s roots are in neighboring Niger and that it became active in border communities in Nigeria after a military coup in 2023.
James Burnett, a researcher at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said the attack in Kwara state was most likely carried out by Jamatu Arlis Sunnah Ridaawati Wal-Jihad (JAS), a Boko Haram faction that has been responsible for other recent massacres in the region.
On Tuesday, the commander of U.S. Africa Command said the United States had sent a small team of military officers to Nigeria in the latest step in response to the security crisis. In December, the US military began airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Nigeria.
Africa’s most populous country has become a diplomatic target of the United States after President Donald Trump threatened to attack it, saying it was not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens.
