Government officials have blamed ‘terrorist cells’ for killing at least 162 people in an attack in Woro village, a village in Kwara state in western Nigeria. Gunmen attacked Woro village on Tuesday evening, according to the Red Cross, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the country in recent months.
The attackers set shops and the traditional king’s palace on fire and shot residents as they tried to flee, with many escaping into nearby bushland with gunshot wounds. The death toll rose as search teams continued to recover bodies, while the whereabouts of the local king remained unclear.
Nigeria is facing overlapping security crises, including banditry, jihadist insurgency in the north-east and north-west, and inter-communal violence in central states. The Nigerian military has intensified operations against jihadists and armed bandits and regularly claims to have killed huge numbers of fighters.
The Kwara state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, condemned the attack as “a cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells following the ongoing counter-terrorism campaigns in parts of the state”.
Source: commonspace.eu with The Guardian and the Red Cross
