ABUJA – Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has dispatched an army battalion to the Kaiama district in central Kwara state following an overnight attack on Woro village that killed 170 people, his office reported on Thursday.
The assault on Tuesday is the deadliest in the state this year. Kwara borders Niger and has become a hotspot for attacks by the Islamic State West Africa Province and other armed groups, who have increasingly targeted villages and carried out mass kidnappings.
Security analysts warn that jihadist factions from northern Nigeria are advancing south along the Niger-Kwara axis toward the Kainji forest, which could become a new stronghold.
Tinubu said the newly deployed military unit would prevent further attacks and protect remote communities. He condemned the massacre as “cowardly and barbaric,” noting that the gunmen targeted villagers who had resisted extremist rule.
“It is commendable that community members, even though Muslims, refused to be conscripted into a belief that promotes violence over peace,” Tinubu said in a statement.
Residents told Reuters that the attackers were jihadists who had long preached in the village, urging locals to abandon the Nigerian state and adopt Sharia law. When villagers refused, the militants opened fire. About 38 houses were destroyed, according to Saidu Baba Ahmed, a lawmaker representing the district in the state assembly.
Meanwhile, a separate attack in northern Katsina state on Tuesday left at least 21 people dead. Gunmen reportedly moved from house to house shooting victims, residents and local police said.
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