Armed extremists killed at least 162 people during attacks on two villages in western Nigeria, a lawmaker said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest assaults in recent months.
The attacks targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku, in the state of Kwara, on Tuesday evening, Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told The Associated Press.
He said the attacks were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with theIslamic Stategroup. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, said the organisation has been unable to reach the communities where scores of people were killed because they are in a remote area about eight hours from the state capital and nearNigerias border withBenin.
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.
State governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq described the attack as a cowardly expression of frustration byterroristcells 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 byIslamicmilitants in the northeast alongside a surge inkidnappingsfor ransom by gunmen across the northwest and north-central regions over recent months.
Separately on Tuesday, unknown gunmen killed at least 13 people in the village of Doma, in the northwestern state of Katsina, police spokesman Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Boko Haram extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 36 people last week during separate attacks on a construction site and on an army base.
The armed groups in Nigeria include at least two affiliated with IS, an offshoot of the Boko Haram extremist group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), known locally as Lakurawa, and prominent in the northwest.
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the Lakurawa has roots in neighbouring Niger and that it became more active in Nigerias border communities following a 2023 military coup.
James Barnett, a researcher at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said the attack in Kwara state was most likely perpetrated by the Jamaatu Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati wal-Jihad, or JAS, aBoko Haramfaction that has been responsible for other recent massacres in the area.
On Tuesday, the head of US Africa Command said theUnited Stateshad sent a small team of military officers to Nigeria, the latest step in its response to the security crisis. In December, US forceslaunched air strikes on IS-affiliated militantsin Nigeria.
Africas most populous country has been in the diplomatic crosshairs of the US following threats by US PresidentDonald Trumpto attack the country, alleging it is not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Originally published on France24
