Thirteen more bodies were buried on Thursday in Woro community, Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State, as residents continued to recover corpses from nearby bushes following a deadly attack by bandits.
The attack, which occurred on Tuesday, reportedly left over 100 people dead, most of them men, while several women and children were abducted.
Community leaders said 75 victims were buried on Wednesday, with many others still missing. As of Thursday, residents said the village had been largely deserted due to fear of further attacks, despite an increased security presence.
Residents said the search for victims was still ongoing and that the exact death toll remained uncertain. Families of women and children abducted during the assault said they had not received any contact regarding their loved ones.
thewatch.ng gathered that heavily armed gunmen, who arrived in large numbers on motorcycles, first converged on a secondary school in the community before launching a coordinated assault.
A resident, Ahmed Yinusa, said the attackers, many of whom wore army uniforms, operated for more than 10 hours without resistance. He attributed the delayed security response to the poor condition of the road leading to the community, noting that Woro is more than 50 kilometres from Kaiama town.
Another survivor, Dr Abdul Woro, said the attackers arrived at about 5pm on Tuesday and immediately opened fire.
“They burnt houses, shops and vehicles, destroying almost everything in the community,” he said.
The Emir of Kaiama, Alhaji Muazu Omar, and the chairman of Kaiama Local Government Area, Abubakar Abdullahi, confirmed the number of victims buried on Wednesday.
Speaking on Thursday, the village head, who lost two children in the attack while his wife and other children were abducted, said the community was struggling to cope with the scale of the tragedy.
“Some bodies were buried today in addition to the 75 buried yesterday. Several houses and 49 shops were completely burnt, and I am yet to hear anything from my kidnapped wife and children,” he said.
Dr Woro, who was involved in the burial process, said bodies continued to be recovered from surrounding bushes.
“We could not bury all the bodies on Wednesday, so we continued today. As of Thursday, 13 additional bodies have been buried, and the search is still ongoing,” he said, adding that most residents had fled the area.
The chairman of the local government said government officials who visited the community saw corpses still lying in parts of the village. He disclosed that additional security personnel, including 50 soldiers and 30 forest guards, had been deployed to restore confidence.
He also revealed that about 12 vigilantes were locked inside a building by the attackers and set ablaze, burning them beyond recognition. However, he dismissed reports claiming that an entire family was wiped out during the attack.
The Kwara State Police Command said it had launched a full-scale investigation into the incident. In a statement, the police spokesperson, Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, said preliminary findings suggested the attackers were suspected religious extremists.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq later led top security chiefs to Woro and Kaiama for an on-the-spot assessment. He confirmed that at least 75 people had been killed and announced that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had approved the immediate deployment of a battalion of soldiers under Operation Savannah Shield.
Describing the incident as a massacre, the governor said the victims were allegedly targeted for rejecting an extremist ideology. He directed the State Emergency Management Agency to begin the enumeration of victims and mobilise humanitarian support.
The Northern States Governors’ Forum condemned the attack, describing it as barbaric and senseless, while the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, expressed condolences and reiterated the UN’s support for Nigeria’s efforts to combat terrorism.
Residents and security experts linked the attack to the Mahmuda terror group, which operates around the Kainji National Park axis. A security expert warned that while recent arrests may weaken the group, sustained operations were required to dismantle its network completely.
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Meanwhile, the military high command vowed that the perpetrators would not go unpunished, assuring Nigerians that efforts were ongoing to track down those responsible for the attack.
