SOKOTO, Nigeria — Armed extremists killed 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 the Islamic State group. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The killing spree happened the same day the head of U.S. Africa Command said the United States had sent a small team of military officers to the country, the latest step in its response to the security crisis. In December, U.S. forces launched airstrikes on Islamic State-affiliated militants in Nigeria.
Africa’s most populous country has been in the diplomatic crosshairs of the U.S. following threats by President Trump to attack the country, alleging it is not doing enough to protect its Christian citizens.
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 shows 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 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.
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 Islamic State, 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, known locally as Lakurawa, and prominent in the northwest.
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the Lakurawa has roots in neighboring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria’s 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 Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, or JAS, a Boko Haram faction that has been responsible for other recent massacres in the area.
The U.S. strikes in December on militants in Nigeria were carried out with support from the Nigerian government and reportedly killed several ISIS terrorists.
Air Force Gen. Dagvin R. M. Anderson, head of U.S. Africa Command, told reporters that Tuesday’s troop deployment was made possible following conversations with Nigerian leaders and that both nations agreed that further teamwork would combat terrorism there.
Prior to the announcement, the U.S. maintained approximately 6,500 troops across Africa, according to U.S. Africa Command. Most, roughly 3,500, are located at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, Pentagon officials said.
“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations to include a small U.S. team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States,” Gen. Anderson said without providing details on what the troops will be doing in Nigeria.
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