NIGERIA: Nearly 200 Murdered In Village That Refused To Forcibly Convert To Jihadi Sect

Responsibility for the latest attack is being laid at the feet of Boko Haram. We often tell the tragic tale of their forces (or others like them) descending on Churches in mid-service or laying waste to Christian villages. This time, the target was more traditional muslims.

We make regular reference to the fact that (by some counting) Christians killed in violence across Nigeria have been averaging as many as 30 a day. But that doesn’t mean their ordinary muslim neighbours are immune from sectarian violence either.

The jihadists came into town around 5:00 pm, described as ‘hundreds of armed men’ wearing military fatigues and insisting the village come to hear their people preach. When they showed no interest in what their sect had to say, the incident turned violent, with shops, and homes set ablaze, and shots ringing out throughout the streets. The violence continued unabated until around 3am. When they were done, there wasn’t much left.

Woro, a village of several thousand people, sits near a forest region known to serve as a hideout for jihadist fighters and armed gangs, groups that have fuelled nearly two decades of violence in Africa’s most populous country.

It is a Muslim community, but its residents want nothing to do with radicalised jihadist groups, said Salihu, the village chief.

“People don’t want to follow their ideology,” he said.

Salihu alerted the local security services.

“I think that is what brought the anger to come and just kill people like that in the community,” he said.

The governor of Kwara State gave the death toll from the attack as 75.

But residents reported burying upwards of 165 bodies.

The attackers kidnapped another 38 people, mostly women and children, said local assembly member Sa’idu Baba Ahmed. — France24

A report in the phonetically-spelled local dialect of English, describes the attack in some detail, summarized below:

The attack (Tuesday of last week, to the early hours of the following morning), and homes were set ablaze, giving villagers nowhere to hide, leaving nowhere to live in the now-deserted village.

When locals didn’t respond to the jihadists call to assemble for the religious exercises of their style, they turned violent, first they went to the village leader’s home, abducting one of his wives and three children. The state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, after visiting the site, used the phrase ‘pure massacre’ to describe the violence, marking it as different from times past when they would kidnap people for ransom. The same group has attacked this village one before in 2025.

Waring letters had been sent for the past 5 months, one as recently 2 weeks prior. But there was no state or national intervention to prevent the violence.

Beyond the murders, some 38 people are among the kidnapped.