By Ajibola Olaide, JKNewsMedia Reporter
AN ARMY battalion has been deployed to Kaiama district in central Kwara State after suspected jihadist fighters killed 170 people in an overnight assault, the President’s office said on Thursday.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that Tuesday’s attack on Woro village marked the deadliest incident in the state this year.
Kwara, which borders Niger, has seen stepped-up assaults and mass kidnappings by Islamic State West Africa Province and other armed groups.
Authorities said the violence signals fears that jihadist factions from the north are advancing south along the Niger-Kwara axis toward the Kainji forest.
The government said it is cooperating with Washington to enhance security and denied any systematic persecution of Christians, following US President Donald Trump’s criticism last year over alleged failures to protect Christians amid Islamist attacks and kidnappings.
US forces struck targets they described as terrorist positions on December 25.
President Bola Tinubu said the new military unit would prevent further attacks and protect remote communities.
He condemned the assault as “cowardly and barbaric,” noting that the gunmen targeted villagers who had rejected attempts to impose extremist rule.
“It is commendable that community members, even though Muslims, refused to be conscripted into a belief that promotes violence over peace,” Tinubu said in a statement.
Residents told Reuters the attackers were jihadists who had long preached in the village, urging locals to abandon the Nigerian state and adopt Sharia rule. When villagers refused, the militants opened fire.
Saidu Baba Ahmed, a lawmaker representing the district at the state assembly, said about 38 houses were destroyed.
In northern Katsina State on Tuesday, gunmen killed at least 21 people, moving from house to house to shoot their victims, residents and local police said.
