Attack on civilians in Nigeria kills at least 170, lawmaker says

At least 170 people have been killed in an attack by armed men on a remote village in Nigeria’s Kwara ​state, a local lawmaker told Reuters on Wednesday, as authorities and soldiers continued to comb nearby bushland for survivors.

It was the deadliest assault recorded this year in the district bordering Niger state, an area increasingly targeted by gunmen who ​raid villages, kidnap residents and loot livestock.

Villagers fled into surrounding bushland as the gunmen attacked Woro, lawmaker Saidu Baba ⁠Ahmed told Reuters by phone.

Ahmed said the gunmen rounded ‍up residents, bound ⁠their hands behind their backs and executed ​them. The lawmaker shared photographs of dead bodies with Reuters, which the agency was not immediately able to verify.

The attackers also torched homes and shops during Tuesday’s raid.

“As I’m speaking to you ⁠now, I’m in the village along with military personnel, sorting dead bodies and combing the surrounding areas for more,” Ahmed said.

Several people were still missing ‍on Wednesday morning, he said.

Residents told Reuters the gunmen, thought to be jihadists who often preached in the village, demanded that locals ditch their allegiance to the Nigerian state and switch to Sharia, Islamic ⁠law. When the villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire during Tuesday’s sermon.

Kwara police spokesperson Adetoun ​Ejire-Adeyemi said the police and military have been mobilized to the area ​for a search-and-rescue operation, but declined to provide casualty details.

A ‘cowardly expression of frustration’

Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, told The Associated Press that hundreds of men attacked the village and scores were killed, but they did not have exact numbers because of the area’s remoteness — about eight hours from the state capital.

Kwara Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said in statement Wednesday the attack was 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 in recent months. Intercommunal violence is also prevalent in the central states.

In a separate attack on Tuesday, gunmen killed at least 13 people in the village of Doma in the northwestern state of Katsina, police spokesperson Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu said in a statement Wednesday.

Investigations were underway to determine the circumstances and identify those responsible, he said.

Last week, armed extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 36 people during separate attacks on a construction site and on an army base.

Nigeria has been under pressure ‍to restore security since U.S. President Donald Trump accused it last year of failing to protect Christians after numerous ‍Islamist attacks and ⁠mass kidnappings. U.S. forces struck what they described as terrorist targets on Dec. 25.

The Nigerian authorities say they are co-operating with Washington to improve security and have denied there is systematic persecution of Christians.