Dozens of Muslims ‘massacred’ in Nigeria for refusing to join jihadists, says governor

Dozens of people have been killed in a ferocious shooting attack on two villages in Nigeria’s western state of Kwara after they refused to “surrender to extremists who preached a strange doctrine”, according to the state’s governor. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said on X that “75 local Muslims were massacred” in Tuesday’s raid, while a state lawmaker told the BBC that 78 people had been buried so far and the death toll could rise to an estimated 170 as more corpses were being recovered. Blaming Islamist militant group Boko Haram for the killings, President Bola Tinubu deployed an army battalion to the affected area.

The assault was one of several across Nigeria in the last few days. In addition to the killings in the villages of Woro and Nuku, 38 people were abducted while others fled and shops and homes were set alight, said Saidu Baba Ahmed, a member of the Kwara state house of assembly. He added that Boko Haram activity had been gradually increasing in the area, saying the attack was triggered by the community’s rejection of a strict interpretation of Islam.

Ahmed explained that the Islamist group had written to the community about their arrival, saying they wanted to preach, but residents resisted and deployed local security forces. Details about the exact number of people who died in the remote area are hard to confirm. A Red Cross official in Kwara, Babaomo Ayodeji, told AFP that “reports said that the death toll now stands at 162, as the search for more bodies continues”. Amnesty International said in a statementthat over 170 people had died, noting many were shot at close range and some burnt alive.