Gunmen have killed at least 67 people in Kwara state in west-central Nigeria, authorities said Wednesday, with the toll expected to rise.
Zamfaras government brokered a controversial peace deal to halt the spiral of violence between bandits and armed vigilante groups opposing them.
At a ceromony before the regional governor Bello Matawale, hundreds of the fighters unloaded sacks full of Kalashnikovs and locally made hunting rifles as part of their promise to disarm. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)
“This morning I was told that around 67 dead bodies were counted,” Sa’idu Baba Ahmed, a local lawmaker in the Kaiama region, told AFP.
The attack was confirmed by police, who did not provide casualty figures, and the state government, which blamed it on “terrorist cells”.
“Many others escaped into the bush with gunshots,” Ahmed said, adding that more bodies could be found there.
The gunmen invaded Woro village around 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday and set “shops and the king’s palace ablaze,” said Ahmed.
He said the traditional king’s whereabouts was unknown.
Kwara state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq condemned the attack as “a cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells following the ongoing counterterrorism campaigns in parts of the state”.
The Nigerian military has intensified operations against jihadists and armed bandits, with the army making regular claims of killing huge numbers of fighters.
Last month, the military said it had launched “sustained coordinated offensive operations against terrorist elements” in Kwara state and scored notable successes.
Local media reported that the army had “neutralised” 150 bandits, a term used to mean killed.
“They successfully neutralised… terrorists, while others managed to escape into the forest,” the army said in a statement on January 30, adding it had cleared their hideouts.
“Troops also stormed remote camps hitherto inaccessible to security forces where several abandoned camps and logistics enablers were destroyed significantly degrading the terrorists’ sustainment capability”.
In response to the myriad insecurity woes, local authorities in Kwara state imposed curfews in certain areas of the state and had closed schools for several weeks, before ordering them to reopen on Monday.
Insecurity in Africa’s most populous country has been under intense scrutiny in recent months since US President Donald Trump alleged a “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria.
The claim has been rejected by the Nigerian government and many independent experts, who say the country’s security crises claim the lives of both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.
