162 Victims Killed by Bandits in Kwara communities

News Update

Armed gunmen killed at least 162 people during attacks on two villages in Kwara state, Nigeria, a lawmaker said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest assaults in recent months. One rights group estimated the death toll could be higher.

The attacks targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku, 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 the Islamic State group. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, said the organization 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 near Nigeria’s border with Benin.

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.

Amnesty International said in a statement the gunmen killed over 170 people, razed homes and looted shops.

“The security lapses that enabled these attack are unacceptable,” the rights group said, adding that the gunmen had been sending “warning” letters to the villagers for more than five months.

State governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq described the attack as a “cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” 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 by Islamic militants in the northeast alongside a surge in kidnappings for ransom by gunmen across the northwest and north-central regions over recent months.

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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.

Source: The Associated Press.