At least 75 bodies have been found after gunmen attacked two villages in Nigeria’s central Kwara State earlier this week, local officials said Wednesday evening.
Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who visited the Kaiama Local Government Area on Wednesday evening with security officials and cabinet members, said 75 people were killed in the communities of Woro and Nuku. He described the victims as local Muslims and said they were attacked after refusing to submit to extremists preaching what he called a “strange doctrine.”
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The gunmen were moving on motorcycles and sowed chaos in the two communities by shooting indiscriminately at residents and razing some houses, local sources told Xinhua.
A senior army officer accompanying the governor on an on-site assessment of the affected villages said the death toll could rise as search and rescue operations continue.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu identified the terrorist group Boko Haram as responsible for the attacks and ordered the deployment of an army battalion to the Kaiama Local Government Area, according to a statement released Wednesday evening by the presidency.
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Mr. Tinubu condemned “this cowardly and bestial attack” and called the gunmen “heartless for choosing easy targets in their doomed terrorist campaign.”
The new military command will lead Operation “Savannah Shield” to “foil barbaric terrorists and protect defenseless communities,” according to the statement quoting the Nigerian leader.
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Xinhua
