Jihadists plan to attack Nigerian capital – leaked memo

Jihadists are plotting attacks on Abuja airport and a prison on the outskirts of Nigeria‘s capital, according to an internal memo prepared by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) seen by AFP on Thursday.

The memo, dated 13 April, calls for an “enhanced level of security within the Federal Capital Territory and its environs”, after the NCS received a “credible report” that Boko Haram and its rival Islamic State West Africa Province splinter group were planning a “series of coordinated attacks”.

Potential targets include the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and Kuje prison, both on the outskirts of Abuja, and the Wawa military prison in neighbouring Niger state, according to the memo.

Kuje prison was the site of a massive jailbreak orchestrated by ISWAP in 2022.

Earlier this month, the Kuje area council in Abuja had instituted a dusk-to-dawn curfew in at least four villages “following credible intelligence regarding a potential kinetic assault” on the prison, according to a separate report by the council seen by AFP.

Uptick in violence

Nigeria has been fighting a jihadist insurgency since 2009, though violence has ticked up in the last year.

Earlier in April, the US embassy in Abuja told “non-emergency” staff they could leave the country “due to the deteriorating security situation”.

Nigerian government officials insisted the capital was safe and was not under any imminent attack.

The country’s information minister dismissed the US government’s advice as a “precautionary measure based on internal protocols”.

According to the customs memo, “ISWAP operatives have already infiltrated the (Federal Capital territory) to facilitate the attacks”.

The Wawa attack is “reportedly being orchestrated” by Boko Haram’s Niger state cell, “in collaboration with elements of” the Nigerian jihadist group Ansaru and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM, which is active in the neighbouring Sahel.

The plot against the airport “reveals a concerning correlation between … recent large-scale attacks on aviation facilities in Niger”, including an attack claimed by the Islamic State Sahel Province on the airport in the capital Niamey, the memo said.

Hundreds of prisoners, including suspected IS and Boko Haram jihadists, escaped after ISWAP fighters attacked the Kuje prison in 2022.

It is located on the far outskirts of the capital, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Nigeria’s presidential villa.

Boko Haram and ISWAP have recently intensified attacks on bases in the country’s north-east as their 17-year campaign to establish a caliphate grinds on.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 and displaced around two million, according to UN figures.

AFP

Related story: Boko Haram violence: Abuja buries senior army officers killed in attacks

Boko Haram violence: Abuja buries senior army officers killed in attacks

Nigeria’s defence minister has attended the funeral of several senior military officers killed in a surge of Boko Haram attacks in the northeast. The officers were laid to rest in Maiduguri, as armed groups intensify violence across the region. On Monday, Boko Haram fighters stormed an army base in Monguno, north of Maiduguri, killing a commander and six soldiers.

Al Jazeera

Related story: Up to 200 civilians killed in Nigeria after air force 'misfire' on market

Up to 200 civilians killed in Nigeria after air force 'misfire' on market

A Nigerian Air Force strike targeting jihadist rebels hit a local market in the northeast, killing as many as 200 civilians, a local chief reported on Monday.

Officials confirmed a misfire but provided no further details.

Amnesty International cited survivors as saying that at least 100 people were killed in the air strike on Saturday on a village in Yobe state, near the border with Borno state, which is the epicentre of the insurgency that has ravaged the region for over a decade.

“We have their pictures and they include children,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's Nigeria director, said, referring to the casualties.

“We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital,” he said. “We spoke with the person in charge of casualties and we spoke with the victims.”

A worker at the Geidam General hospital in Yobe, said at least 23 people injured in the incident were receiving treatment. The worker spoke anonymously as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Such misfires are common in Nigeria, where the military often conducts air raids to battle armed groups who control vast forest enclaves.

At least 500 civilians have died since 2017 in such misfires, according to a tally of reported deaths carried out by the AP news agency.

Security analysts point to loopholes in intelligence gathering as well as insufficient coordination between ground troops, air assets and stakeholders.

The large, remote market located near the Borno-Yobe border is known to be often used by Boko Haram militants to buy food supplies.

Abdulmumin Bulama, a member of a civilian security group working with the Nigerian military in the northeast, said there was intelligence that Boko Haram terrorists had gathered very close to the market and were planning an attack on nearby communities.

“The intel was shared and the Air Force jet acted based on the credible information,” Bulama said.

The Yobe State Government confirmed in a statement that a Nigerian military strike was targeting a stronghold of the Boko Haram jihadi group in the area and that “some people…who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected.”

The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency also acknowledged that an incident had occurred resulting in “casualties affecting some marketers” and said it had dispatched response teams to the area.

Nigeria's military issued a statement saying it conducted a successful strike on a “terrorist enclave and logistics hub” belonging to terrorists in the area, killing scores of them as they rode on motorcycles.

It did not provide any detail about a possible misfire, but noted that motorcycles remain prohibited in conflict hot spots and “any such movements in restricted areas are therefore treated with the utmost seriousness.”

Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation into the incident, adding that the military is “fond of” labelling civilian casualties as bandits

Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country, is battling a complex security crisis, especially in the north, where there is a decade-long insurgency and several armed groups that kidnap for ransom.

Among the most prominent Islamic militant groups are Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group and known as Islamic State West Africa Province. There is also the IS-linked Lakurawa group operating in communities in the northwestern part of the country that borders Niger Republic.

By Gavin Blackburn, euronews

Related stories: Nigeria opens investigation after deadly airstrike kills dozens in market

Survivors ask why Nigeria bombed busy market in effort to target jihadist group

Nigeria opens investigation after deadly airstrike kills dozens in market

The airstrikes on the village of Jilli, in Yobe State, occurred on Saturday, with the death tolls differing according to the sources.

Nigerian military jets struck the village market while pursuing Islamist militants in the northeast of the country on Saturday night, a councillor for the area and residents said on Sunday.

A UN security report seen by French news agency AFP first stated that "4 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets launched airstrikes that mistakenly killed at least 56 people and injured 14 others at the Jilli market... on 11 April."

"This occurred during a military operation targeting Boko Haram fighters who visited the market to conduct terrorism activities," it added.

Amnesty International initially said on social media that there were "more than 100 dead" and 35 people seriously injured when the attack happened.

Local chief Lawan Zanna Nur Geidam described it as "a devastating incident".

"As I'm speaking to you, over 200 people have lost their lives from the air strike at the market," he said in a telephone interview with Reuters.

He said injured people had been taken to hospitals in Yobe and Borno.

Crossfire

Nigeria's military first said it had "successfully conducted a precision air strike on a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli". It added that "scores of terrorists" were killed in the strike, but did not mention any civilian deaths.

In a separate statement, the air force announced it had launched an investigation following reports that its airstrike "may have affected a local market in Jilli, resulting in civilian casualties".

The Nigerian Air Force said in its statement it had activated its Civilian Harm Accident and Investigation Cell "to immediately proceed to the location on a fact-finding mission on the allegation".

The government of Yobe state later said in its own statement that an air strike on the area had been conducted near a market where shoppers and vendors had gathered.

"Some people from Geidam LGA (local government area) bordering Gubio LGA in Borno state who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected," said Brigadier General Dahiru Abdulsalam, military adviser to the Yobe state government. He gave no further details.

Mistaken targets

The strike occurred on the border between Yobe and Borno states, the heartland of the long-running insurgency that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions more over the years.

Africa's most populous country has been fighting a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, since Boko Haram's 2009 uprising, which has seen the emergence of powerful splinter groups including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Jihadists kill 18 Nigerian troops including senior brigadier general

This strike is the latest in a series of such incidents in the north of the country.

In January 2025, a military airstrike killed at least 16 people in northwestern Zamfara state after an army jet mistook local vigilantes for criminal gangs.

A month earlier, a military jet killed 10 people when it hit villages while bombing jihadist positions in neighbouring Sokoto state.

International scrutiny and US involvement

Jihadist violence had slowed from its peak in around 2015 but Boko Haram and ISWAP have recently increased attacks in northeastern Nigeria vying to establish a caliphate.

Researchers have noted a rise in violence since last year. More than 100 people in the north have been killed over the last 10 days by both jihadists and criminal gangs.

Nigeria is facing international scrutiny over its security situation, including pressure from US President Donald Trump, who ordered bombardments on Islamists militants last Christmas.

Earlier this year the United States began deploying 200 troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to soldiers in fighting jihadist groups.

In the face of pressure to tackle insecurity, Nigeria's Justice Minister Lateef Fagbemi on Friday said the government had brought to court 508 cases and convicted nearly 386 people for links to jihadists groups terrorism in a mass trial.

rfi

Related stories: Survivors ask why Nigeria bombed busy market in effort to target jihadist group

Up to 200 civilians killed in Nigeria after air force 'misfire' on market

Survivors ask why Nigeria bombed busy market in effort to target jihadist group

Survivors and observers have questioned the Nigerian military’s rationale for a devastating airstrike on a busy market that killed as many as 200 people, many of them civilians.

The hit on Jilli market on the border of the north-eastern Borno and Yobe states on Saturday is the latest in a string of attacks by the country’s air force over the past decade with a high civilian death toll.

The military said it had been targeting members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) jihadist group. A local councillor said more than 200 people had died, while Amnesty International said the death toll was above 100 and rising.

Nigeria has struggled to suppress multiple conflicts, including an insurgency in the north-east by the Islamist group Boko Haram, which it has been battling for 17 years. The group split in 2016, with Iswap forming in its place. Meanwhile, the country’s north-west region is beset by armed groups of bandits, and there are regular fatal clashes between herders and farmers in the country’s middle belt.

Nigeria’s military said in a post on X on Sunday that it had “successfully conducted a precision airstrike on a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli … [that] followed sustained intelligence”.

The statement, attributed to the military spokesperson Sani Uba, said: “Post-strike assessment confirmed that the target area was struck with high accuracy, resulting in the destruction of the identified terrorist logistics enclave. Scores of terrorists were neutralised in the strike.”

However, local traders denied that Islamist fighters had been among them. “I don’t know if there were jihadists at the market. We are just ordinary people,” Mala Garba, 42, told Agence France-Presse while recovering from injuries at a hospital in Maiduguri, Borno’s state capital.

He was among 46 victims of the airstrike at the hospital. Some were heavily bandaged, while others had IV drips attached.

Lawan Zanna Nur Geidam, the area’s local councillor and traditional leader, said: “It’s a very devastating incident at Jilli market. As I’m speaking to you, over 200 people have lost their lives from the airstrike at the market.”

Yobe state officials later admitted that civilians had been affected. “Some people … who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected,” Brig Gen Dahiru Abdulsalam, a military adviser to the Yobe state government, told Reuters.

It was likely there had been Iswap members or supporters at the market, said Malik Samuel, a researcher with Good Governance Africa. “That area is particularly known for the presence of Iswap,” he said. “It’s a major logistics route for the group.”

However, he said it would have been “impossible” for an airstrike to distinguish between fighters and civilians at a busy market frequented by hundreds or even thousands of people, adding: “Would it not be better to trace people leaving the market and going to known areas occupied by this group … instead of just hitting a market that you know clearly that there would be civilians in this place?”

Nigeria’s military has killed at least 500 civilians in airstrikes since 2017, according to the Associated Press. At least 115 people were killed in 2017 when a camp housing displaced people in Borno was bombed. More than 120 people were killed in two airstrikes on a religious gathering in Kaduna state in December 2023.

“The lack of accountability is a big problem, because it emboldens the military to continue doing that,” Samuel said.

Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International Nigeria’s executive director, said: “You cannot trust the military to investigate themselves. Whenever they investigate themselves, the outcome is as usual: they exonerate themselves.”

He added: “These deadly airstrikes will undermine trust in public institutions and will even undermine the fight against insurgency and banditry.”

The US has previously accused Nigeria of failing to protect Christians from jihadists, although Muslim civilians are also killed by Islamist groups. On Christmas Day 2025, the US carried out airstrikes on an Islamist group known as Lakurawa in north-west Nigeria.

By Rachel Savage, The Guardian

Related stories:  Up to 200 civilians killed in Nigeria after air force 'misfire' on market

Nigeria opens investigation after deadly airstrike kills dozens in market

Military air strikes kill dozens of people in northeast Nigeria

Dozens of people died in air strikes in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state as military aircraft hunted jihadists, local residents and Amnesty International said Sunday.

Africa's most populous country has been fighting a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, since Boko Haram's 2009 uprising, which has seen the emergence of powerful splinter groups including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

In recent years, civilians have been caught in the crossfire and killed in military air strikes targeting the militants, though the authorities sometimes dispute hitting civilians.

The latest air strikes on the village of Jilli occurred on Saturday, the death tolls differing according to the sources.

Amnesty International said on X there were "more than 100 dead" and 35 people seriously wounded.

“We have their pictures and they include children,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's Nigeria director, told the Associated Press, referring to the casualties.

“We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital,” he said. “We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims.”

Local chief Lawan Zanna Nur however said "the total casualties, dead and injured, is around 200".

Many were taken to hospitals in nearby Geidam and Maiduguri, he added, where at least eight more of the wounded had died Sunday.

"We are talking of dozens dead but it is difficult to give a specific toll," he said.

Nigeria's military said in a statement it had struck a location in Jilli, "long identified as a major terrorist movement corridor and convergence point for Islamic State West Africa Province terrorists and their collaborators".

Calling it "a carefully, well coordinated planned and intelligence-driven operation", the military said in a statement that it "successfully conducted a precision air strike on a known terrorist enclave and logistics hub located near the abandoned village of Jilli".

It said "scores of terrorists" were killed in the strike, but did not mention any civilian casualties.

The Nigerian Air Force later responded to reports of civilian casualties with a statement saying it had activated ‌its Civilian Harm Accident and Investigation Cell "to immediately proceed to the location on a fact-finding ⁠mission on the allegation".

A market committee member Bulama Mulima Abbas told AFP "36 bodies have been counted" after the airstrike "on the traders".

An intelligence source told AFP that Jilli market "is wholly controlled by Boko Haram who provides security and collect tax from traders".

Jihadist violence had slowed from its peak in around 2015 but Boko Haram and ISWAP have recently stepped up attacks in northeastern Nigeria in their campaign to establish a caliphate.

The insurgency which started in 2009 has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million more, according to the United Nations.

Early this year the United States began deploying 200 troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to soldiers in fighting jihadist groups.

Nigeria's Attorney General and Minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi on Friday said nearly 400 people had been convicted for terrorism and terrorism financing in the latest series of mass trials.

"In total, we brought about 508 cases. Of this 508, we were able to secure 386 convictions, 8 discharges, 2 acquittals and 112 adjourned to the next phase," he told reporters.

France 24

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Northern Nigeria on edge following series of attacks

A renewed wave of attacks in northern Nigeria, including suspected suicide bombings targeting crowded public places, has heightened tensions. At least 20 people have been killed and more than 100 others injured by militia in Borno State. The violence has also raised fresh security concerns ahead of Nigeria’s next general elections, with analysts warning it could depress voter turnout in the northeast, where displacement and fear remain widespread.

CGTN Africa

Nigerian army says 80 militants killed

Nigerian soldiers killed at least 80 suspected militants near a military base in the northeastern Borno state, the country's army said on Wednesday.

Backed by air support, the Nigerian military said it repelled a coordinated overnight assault by insurgents of an unclear affiliation near the Niger border.
Attack comes on heels of suicide bombings

Wednesday's attack follows escalating jihadi violence in the conflict-battered state by Boko Haram and its rival offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province. Earlier this week, three suspected suicide bombings killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100 others in Borno's capital, Maiduguri.

While no group claimed responsibility for the bombings in the city of around 1.2 million people, officials' suspicion fell on Boko Haram. The jihadi group launched an insurgency 17 years ago in northeastern Nigeria with a radical interpretation of Sharia law.

On Wednesday, Nigerian army spokesman Sani Uba described the military's attack as an "offensive-defensive" ​response.

Authorities added that "no fewer than 80 terrorists" were killed, including "high-profile" commanders.

International media have not been able to independently verify these claims.

Since its insurgency in 2009, Boko Haram has killed more than 40,000 and displaced around 2 million people, according to figures by the United Nations.

By Sean Sinico, DW

US to deploy 200 troops to train Nigerian forces in fight against terrorists

The United States will deploy 200 troops to Nigeria to train its armed forces in their fight against terror groups, Nigerian and US officials said on Tuesday, as Washington increases military cooperation with the West African country.

"We are getting US troops to assist in training and technical support," Major General Samaila Uba, a spokesperson for Nigeria's Defence Headquarters, told AFP.

The Wall Street Journal reported the deployment, which will supplement a small US team already in the country to aid the Nigerians with air strike targeting.

The additional troops, expected to arrive in the coming weeks, will provide "training and technical guidance," including by helping their Nigerian counterparts coordinate operations that involve air strikes and ground troops simultaneously, the US daily said.

A US Africa Command spokesperson confirmed the details of the report to AFP.

Nigeria has been under diplomatic pressure from the United States over insecurity in the country, which US President Donald Trump has characterised as "persecution" and "genocide" against Christians.

Although there are instances where Christians are specifically targeted, Muslims are also killed en masse, with Trump's senior adviser on Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos saying last year Boko Haram and Daesh "are killing more Muslims than Christians."

Abuja rejects allegations of Christian persecution in Nigeria, a framing long used by the US religious right.

So do independent analysts, who point to a broader state failure to curb violence from these groups and armed gangs across swaths of sparsely governed countryside.

Despite the diplomatic pressure, Nigeria and the United States have found common ground in increasing military collaboration.

The US targeted terrorists in northwest Sokoto state with strikes in December, in a joint operation with Nigeria, officials from both countries said.

Going forward, the US military has said it will supply intelligence for Nigerian air strikes and work to expedite arms purchases.

While the 200-troop deployment represents a scaling up of that collaboration, "US troops aren't going to be involved in direct combat or operations," Uba told the Journal.

Nigeria requested the additional assistance, he added.

Africa's most populous country is battling a long-running insurgency concentrated in its northeast, while non-ideological "bandit" gangs conduct kidnappings for ransom and loot villages in the northwest.

AFP

Related story: US announces military team sent to Nigeria after recent attacks

Nigeria insecurity persists despite US military deployment

Survivors recount terror of Nigeria massacre where people were burned inside houses

 

First, the jihadists sent a letter saying they were coming to the village to preach, said Nigerian chief Umar Bio Salihu.

When no one attended, they went on a rampage, killing people and torching houses, he said.
Salihu is the traditional chief of Woro, a small, Muslim-majority village in west-central Nigeria where alleged jihadist gunmen are reported to have perpetrated a massacre late Tuesday.

Details were still emerging from the attack, but it was one of the country’s deadliest in recent months. According to the Red Cross, the death toll stood at 162 people, and the search for bodies was ongoing.

Badly shaken, Salihu recounted the night of terror he survived as the attackers killed two of his sons and kidnapped his wife and three daughters.

Around 5pm, the gunmen “just came in and started shooting”, the 53-year-old chief told Agence France-Presse on Thursday, clutching his Muslim prayer beads in his hand.

“All those shops that are within the road, they burnt them … Some people have been burned inside their houses,” he said.

Salihu survived by hiding in a house, then fled to the neighbouring town of Kaiama.

The attack lasted until 3am, he said.

“When the day breaks, the corpses we see, it’s too much,” he said.

Agence France-Presse reporters who visited Woro found it deserted except for a handful of men searching for bodies and burying the dead.

Large parts of the village had been reduced to piles of ash and rubble, with the remains of burned-out vehicles strewn across its dirt roads.

Resident Muhammed Abdulkarim said he had been standing by the road when he saw a group of what looked like soldiers in uniform approaching.

Then he realised they were “bandits”, he said.

“They started chasing people, catching people, tied them by their back,” he said.

“We just hear, pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa. They are shooting them (in) their heads.”

Abdulkarim, 60, lost 12 family members in the attack, and his two-year-old son was abducted, he said.

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.

When a radical group sent a letter saying they planned to come to Woro to preach, no one attended, 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.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu condemned the “beastly attack”, deploying an army battalion to the troubled region and blaming the Islamist movement Boko Haram - though the name was often used generically for jihadist groups in Nigeria.

Kwara State is racked by violence by armed “bandit” gangs and jihadist groups that have been extending their range from northwestern Nigeria farther south.

In October, the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed its first attack on Nigerian soil in the state, near Woro.

Nigeria’s northeast is meanwhile the scene of long-running violence by Boko Haram and a rival offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Nigeria is broadly split between a Christian-majority south and a Muslim-majority north.

US President Donald Trump has alleged there was a “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria - a claim rejected by the Nigerian government and many independent experts, who say the country’s security crises claim the lives of both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.

Washington has alternately pressured and aided the Nigerian government in its fight against jihadist violence.

On Christmas Day, the United States launched strikes targeting jihadist militants in northwestern Nigeria.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the massacre in Woro as a “terrorist attack”, and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

AP

Related story: Attacks on civilians in central and northern Nigeria kill nearly 200

Attacks on civilians in central and northern Nigeria kill nearly 200

Nearly 200 people have been killed by armed men ​in separate attacks in remote villages in central and northern Nigeria, a local lawmaker, residents and police said on Wednesday, as security forces searched for survivors and chased the attackers.

In central Kwara state, gunmen attacked the Woro community on Tuesday leaving at least 170 people dead, the lawmaker for the area Saidu Baba Ahmed said by phone.

It was the deadliest assault recorded this year in the district bordering Niger state, an area increasingly targeted by gunmen who ​raid villages, kidnap residents and loot livestock.

Ahmed said the gunmen rounded ‍up residents, bound ⁠their hands behind their backs and executed ​them. The lawmaker shared photographs of dead bodies with Reuters, which the agency was not immediately able to verify.

Villagers fled into surrounding bushland during the attack, he said. The gunmen torched homes and shops.

Police said "scores were killed," without giving a figure.

"As I'm speaking to you now, I'm in the village along with military personnel, sorting dead bodies ⁠and combing the surrounding areas for more," Ahmed said.

Several people were still missing ‍on Wednesday morning, he said.

Residents told Reuters the gunmen demanded during a sermon that locals ditch their allegiance to the Nigerian state and switch to Sharia Islamic ⁠law. When the villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire.

Kwara police spokesperson Adetoun ​Ejire-Adeyemi said the police and military have been mobilized to the area ​for a search-and-rescue operation, but declined to provide casualty details.

A 'cowardly expression of frustration'

Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, told The Associated Press that hundreds of men attacked and scores were killed, but they did not have exact numbers because of the area's remoteness — about eight hours from the state capital and near Nigeria's border with Benin.

Footage from the scene on local television show bodies lying in blood on the ground, some with their hands tied, as well as burning houses.

Kwara Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said in statement Wednesday the violence was a "cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells" in response to ongoing military operations against armed extremists in the state.

Nigeria is in the grip of a complex security crisis, with an insurgency by Islamic militants in the northeast alongside a surge in kidnappings for ransom by gunmen across the northwest and north-central regions in recent months. Intercommunal violence is also prevalent in the central states.

Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told The Associated Press that Tuesday attacks in Woro and Nuku were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State group.

But James Barnett, a researcher at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said the culprits were most likely a faction of Boko Haram that has been responsible for other recent massacres in the area. No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks.

The Nigerian military has said in the past that the Lakurawa has roots in neighbouring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria's border communities following a 2023 military coup.

Separate attack kills 13

In a separate attack in the northern ⁠Katsina state, gunmen killed at least 21 people, moving from house to house to shoot their victims, residents and local police said.

The attack broke ​a six-month peace pact between the community and the armed gang.

It also highlighted the dilemma faced by ​residents in Nigeria's remote north, where some have sought peace with the armed gangs that terrorize them. Residents typically ‍pool money and food, which they give to bandits so they are not attacked.

Last week, armed extremists in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 36 people during separate attacks on a construction site and on an army base.

Nigeria has been under pressure ‍to restore security since U.S. President Donald Trump accused it last year of failing to protect Christians after numerous ‍Islamist attacks and ⁠mass kidnappings. U.S. forces struck what they described as terrorist targets on Dec. 25.

The Nigerian authorities say they are co-operating with Washington to improve security and have denied there is systematic persecution of Christians.

Reuters

Related story: US announces military team sent to Nigeria after recent attacks

US to step up coordination with Nigeria to pursue Islamic State group militants

The US military is increasing materiel deliveries and intelligence sharing with Nigeria, Africom's deputy commander said, as part of a broader American push to work with African militaries to go after Islamic State group-linked militants.

The Pentagon has also kept open lines of communication with militaries in the junta-led Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, Lieutenant General John Brennan said.

The increased cooperation with Abuja follows Washington's diplomatic pressure on Nigeria over jihadist violence in the country, but also as the US military is becoming "more aggressive" in pursuing IS group-linked targets on the continent.

Under the Trump administration, "we've gotten a lot more aggressive and (are) working with partners to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly ISIS," Brennan said in an interview on the sidelines of a US-Nigeria security meeting in the Nigerian capital last week.

"From Somalia to Nigeria, the problem set is connected. So we're trying to take it apart and then provide partners with the information they need," he added.

"It's been about more enabling partners and then providing them equipment and capabilities with less restrictions so that they can be more successful."

Last week's inaugural US-Nigeria Joint Working Group meeting came roughly a month after the US announced surprise Christmas Day strikes on IS group-linked targets in northwest Nigeria.

Diplomatic clash

Though both militaries seem keen on increased cooperation after the joint strikes, hanging over it all is diplomatic pressure by Washington over what Trump claims is the mass killing of Christians in Nigeria.

Abuja and independent analysts reject that framing of Nigeria's myriad, overlapping conflicts, which has long been used by the US religious right.

Charged politics were on display at the Joint Working Group meeting in Abuja, where Allison Hooker, the number three at the State Department, pushed the Nigerian government "to protect Christians" in a speech that did not mention Muslim victims of armed groups.

Africa's most populous country is roughly evenly split between a mostly Muslim north and mostly Christian south. Though millions live peacefully side by side, religious and ethnic identity remains a sensitive topic in a country that has seen sectarian violence throughout its history.

Brennan said that US intelligence would not be limited to protecting Christians.

He also said that following the US strikes in northwestern Sokoto state, American support going forward would focus on intelligence sharing to aid Nigerian air strikes there, as well as the northeast, where a jihadist insurgency by Boko Haram and rival breakaway ISWAP has raged since 2009.

Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is "our most concerning group", he said.

Analysts have been tracking US intelligence flights over the country in recent months, though some have questioned whether air support alone can push back armed groups that thrive amid widespread poverty and state collapse in rural areas.

'Still collaborate' with AES militaries

US-Nigerian cooperation going forward will involve "the whole gamut of intel sharing, sharing... tactics, techniques, and procedures, as well as enabling them to procure more equipment," Brennan said.

The initial strikes targeted militants linked to the Islamic State Sahel Province group, typically active in neighbouring Niger, Brennan said.

Analysts have voiced concerns about ISSP's spread from the Sahel into coastal west African countries like Nigeria.

The impact of those strikes so far has been unclear, however, with local and international journalists unable to confirm militant casualties.

Asked about their effectiveness, Nigerian information minister Mohammed Idris said last week it was "still a work in progress".

In the Sahel more widely, Brennan said "we still collaborate" with the junta-led governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have broken away from their west African neighbours and largely shunned the West.

Security cooperation has been curtailed since coups toppled civilian governments across the three countries from 2020 to 2023.

"We have actually shared information with some of them to attack key terrorist targets," he said. "We still talk to our military partners across the Sahelian states, even though it's not official."

Brennan also said the US is not seeking to replace its bases in Niger after its troops were pushed out by the ruling junta.

"We're not in the market to create a drone base anywhere," he said, referencing the shuttered US drone operations in Agadez.

"We are much more focused on getting capability to the right place at the right time and then leaving. We don't seek long-term basing in any of the western African countries."

France 24

Nigeria to use intel from US flights to aid strikes on Islamic State, government says

Nigeria, which is battling multiple armed groups, said last month that the US strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two nations.

The Nigerian air force will reportedly take the lead from the US after Washington's strikes against militants of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in northwest Nigeria last month.

A Nigerian official told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that the country's fighter jets woulds use intelligence gathered from US reconnaissance flights to aid their own air strikes as part of a new security arrangement with Washington.

However, Nigeria remains open to further US strikes like the ones on Christmas Day, according to the official.

US President Donald Trump announced on 26 December that the US had carried out "powerful and deadly" strikes against IS gunmen in Nigeria's Sokoto state.

Trump said that "terrorist scum" targeted in the strikes were "viciously targeting and killing mostly innocent Christians". The number of casualties is unclear, although Nigerian and US officials said that militants were killed in the strikes.

Nigeria, which is battling multiple armed groups, said last month that the US strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two nations.

Despite Trump's comments about Christian victims of violence, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar said the attacks had "nothing to do with a particular religion."

This echoed comments by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who said that security challenges affect people "irrespective of religions and regions."

Residents and security analysts have said Nigeria's security crisis affects both Christians, who are predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north.

The armed groups operating in Nigeria include at least two organisations linked to IS: the Islamic State of West Africa — an offshoot of Boko Haram that operates mainly in the northeast — and the lesser-known Islamic State's Shahel Province (ISSP) — known locally as Lakurawa — with a strong presence in the northwest.

Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa have wreaked havoc in northeastern Nigeria for more than a decade, killing thousands of people, yet most of them were Muslims, according to ACLED, a group that analyses political violence.

In November, Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria to try and curb what he called Christian persecution.

The US president previously designated Nigeria a "country of particular concern" due to the "existential threat" it poses to its Christian population.

This designation allows for US sanctions against countries "engaged in serious violations of religious freedom."

EuroNews

Video - Locals in northern Nigeria warned against handling unexploded artillery

The Nigerian military has urged civilians in the country’s northwest not to keep or tamper with unexploded artillery found at sites targeted in recent US airstrikes. The warning comes after online footage showed local residents scavenging debris and unexploded ordnance at strike locations in Sokoto State, raising fears of potentially deadly explosions.

CGTN Africa

Video - Nigerians react to surprise US strikes on militants

Many Nigerians have welcomed the US-Nigeria strikes on militants as a boost to long-running counterterrorism efforts, even as concerns persist over possible collateral damage.

CGTN Africa

Video - Analyst weighs in on resurgence of militant activities in Nigeria

David Otto-Endeley, Director of the Geneva Centre for Africa Security and Strategic Studies, shares his insights into the escalating wave of terrorism and banditry across Nigeria. The latest attack has seen 60 people killed by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State.

CGTN Africa

At least 60 people dead in Boko Haram attack in northern Nigeria

More than 60 people were killed in overnight attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the northern Nigerian state of Borno, local officials said. At least five of the people killed were soldiers.

The militants struck the village of Darul Jamal, the location of a military base along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. The Nigerian Air Force said it killed 30 militants after it received reports of attacks on the village.

"In a series of three precise and successive strikes, the fleeing terrorists were decisively engaged, resulting in the neutralization of over 30 insurgents," Nigerian Air Force spokesperson Ehimen Ejodame said, according to BBC News.

Ejodame said the insurgents were fleeing north from the town toward nearby bushes.

Residents recently returned to the rebuilding village after years of being displaced by fighting between Boko Haram and rival groups, including the West African branch of the Islamic State group, authorities said.

"This community was settled a few months ago and they went about their normal activities, but unfortunately, they experienced a Boko Haram attack last night," Gov. Babagana Zulum told local media. "Our visit is to commiserate with them and build their resilience."

Zulum called for the immediate deployment of newly trained specialty guards to help the military defend vulnerable communities.

A decade ago, Boko Haram controlled large areas of Borno state before being pushed back.

UPI

Video - Security experts applaud Nigeria’s arrest of high-profile Ansaru militants

Nigerian authorities captured two top leaders of Ansaru, an Al-Qaeda-linked terror group accused of some of the country's deadliest attacks. National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu called it a major breakthrough in the fight against insurgency and banditry. Security experts have welcomed the arrests, calling them a strong sign that Nigeria’s counter-terrorism efforts are gaining ground.

CGTN Africa

Video - Militants escalate attacks in Northeast Nigeria

Nigeria’s Borno State is facing a deepening insurgency, largely blamed on militants. In recent months, a wave of attacks has overwhelmed security forces, leaving local authorities struggling to respond. Officials are now calling on the central government to take urgent action to curb the growing threat.

CGTN

Related story: Mounting death toll and looming humanitarian crisis amid unchecked attacks by armed groups in Nigeria

Video - Nigerian military chief vows troop support as insurgent attacks rise

Nigeria’s top military commander, General Christopher Musa, pledged full support to troops battling a rise in insurgent violence, particularly in Borno State. This follows a deadly April attack where over 100 civilians were killed and multiple military bases were attacked. The army chief pledged new leadership, fresh equipment, and possible border fortifications as part of renewed efforts to restore security.

CGTN