Two weeks after residents of the Nigerian villages of Woro and Nuku ignored a letter from extremists announcing their intention to preach, armed men arrived on motorcycles and engaged in a murderous rampage that lasted 10 hours.
The attackers went from door to door, shooting and setting fire to houses and shops in these predominantly Muslim villages.
“We can’t salvage anything from the house; it’s completely ruined. It’s totally uninhabitable. In my shop, the refrigerator that was outside is gone; there’s nothing else left. The fences have all been destroyed, so I can’t get into the house. But I remember seeing people burned alive inside my house; they had no legs or heads; they had been decapitated, I couldn’t recognize them,” described Maryam Muhammed, a victim.
In the deadliest attack in Nigeria in several months, extremists rounded up villagers, tied their arms behind their backs, lined them up, and shot them in the head.
"It's because the community is neglected. That's why the so-called attackers come to the community to invade it and destroy people's lives for no reason. Look at this community; look at the people they have killed," said Abdullahi Ibrahim, a survivor.
“Even if they send a battalion of soldiers to this community, even if the government does its best, I don’t think this community will ever go back to what it was before. Because even if they say today that yes, that the community is normal and that nothing will happen again, not everyone will come back here. In fact, this community has suffered a lot of damage,” said Umar Bio Kabir, a survivor.
Authorities say they massacred at least 162 people, and villagers say they kidnapped many more.
This attack is the latest in a wave of violence in Kwara State, as well as in other conflict zones, as armed groups in Nigeria challenge state authority and compete with each other.
