Deadly Attacks in Kwara State | Whole Truth Nigeria

Deadly Attacks in Kwara State: 3rd February 2026

Violence in Kwara

On February 3, 2026 (and extending into the early hours of February 4), hundreds of extremist militants attacked the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara State, Nigeria near the Benin border. The attack involved mass shootings, arson, and kidnappings, and left more than 200 individuals dead. This is the single most deadly attack in recent history involving the Lakurawa terrorist group. Kwara was once called the State of Harmony because it was considered relatively peaceful. However, there has been a sharp rise in violence since 2024-2025. (1)

Background

The attack on Nuku and Woro, which are neighbouring, predominantly Muslim villages in Kaiama, Kwara, near the Beninese border, began at 17:30 West African Time.

The Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, explained that the victims were “local Muslims massacred for refusing to surrender to extremists preaching a strange doctrine.” (2) In response to the attacks, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the counteroffensive codenamed Operation Savannah Shield.

The Punch reports that the attackers, operating from forests around the Borgu axis, had earlier preached in neighbouring Niger State. Their message was that locals should abandon Nigeria’s constitution and embrace Islamic Shariah law. An earlier attempt to spread this message had been made in the Baburasa community of the Borgu area but was rejected.

This time, when locals of the Woro and Nuku communities resisted the message, the attackers fired on them. (3)

The Peoples Gazette quotes Amnesty International that the attackers had sent letters and pamphlets to the communities two weeks before the attack. (4) Many of those killed were shot at close range and some were burnt alive,” the organisation reported.

According to Associated Press, the Muslim-majority villages of Woro and Nuku in Kwara state were attacked and killed by the terrorists for rejecting “their obnoxious attempt at indoctrination, choosing instead to practice Islam that is neither extreme nor violent.” (5)

As per the Premium Times, the assault came weeks after the group sent a letter to the district head of Woro, Salihu Bio Umar, a member of the Kwara State Emirate Council, notifying him of their intention to visit the community for preaching. The final warning came in early January and was addressed from Jama’at Ahl al Sunna lil Da’wa wal Jihad, the formal name of Boko Haram, and its Lake Chad-based leader Bakura Doro. (6) Salihu Umar forwarded the letter to the council in Ilorin and requested the deployment of soldiers to Woro. A small detachment of soldiers was sent to Woro but withdrew when no attack occurred. The jihadist fighters moved to Barburasa, a neighbouring community 20km from Woro, but then returned. (7)

Attack

The attack on Nuku and Woro began at 17:30 West Africa Time and extended till 03:00 the following morning. Hundreds of gunmen, armed with explosives and AK-47s, participated. They surrounded the villages, blocking all exits.

The Independent reported that gunmen on motorbikes systematically moved door-to-door, shooting residents and setting homes and shops ablaze. Attackers entered a mosque, announced the call to prayer, and shot everyone who turned up. The extremists rounded up villagers, tied their arms, lined them up, and executed them with gunshots to the head. Only

about 20 men remained in the villages after the attack, left with the arduous task of burying scores of dead people. Residents struggled to breathe as the harmattan wind blew the ashes of burned houses and shops, with a lingering stench of blood. (8)

The attackers targeted Woro district head Salihu Umar's home. He survived the attack since he was not present at the time, but the attackers ended up killing or kidnapping members of his family instead. AhramOnline quotes Salihu: "All those shops that are within the road, they burnt them... Some people have been burned inside their houses," he said. "They killed two of (my sons) standing at the front of my house. They took away my second wife with some three (daughters). They are with them presently in the bush." (9) Salihu survived by hiding in a house, then fled to the neighbouring town of Kaiama. Many residents also fled into the surrounding bushland. Approximately 38 homes were destroyed.

Deutsche Welle reports that Kwara is the same state where the US targeted Islamic State militants at the request of Nigeria's government at Christmas. (10)

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/561880.aspx

Attackers

The Guardian quotes James Barnett, a researcher at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, saying that armed groups have been going farther afield because they are finding a lot of competition from rival groups in the areas where they traditionally operated. (11)

Woro is located on the fringes of Kainji National Park, a vast forest reserve covering about 5,341 square kilometres. The area has increasingly become a hideout for armed groups, including Boko Haram and Ansaru—locally known as Mamuda. While Ansaru has operated in the area since around 2020, Boko Haram fighters moved into the forest in July last year, as Premium Times learnt. (12)

Premium Times also observed that the Woro attacks came barely a month after Boko Haram fighters under the command of Mallam Sadiku attacked Kasuwan Daji in neighbouring Niger State, killing more than 30 people and abducting women and children. Sadiku’s faction was also responsible for the abduction of over 300 students from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State. The Sadiku faction of Boko Haram has operated in the Alawa forest reserve from where it attacked neighbouring villages like Alawa, Basa and Kurebe, among others, and has moved to the Kanji axis as well. Premium Times reports that the group left its former stronghold due to sustained military aerial bombardment and infighting with Dogo Gide, a notorious bandit leader Sadiku had collaborated with to stage violent attacks. (13)

Critical Threats reports that Abubakar Shekau, the late leader of Boko Haram, had dispatched Sadiku to northwestern Niger in 2020. Sadiku eventually established two bases on opposite sides of the border of Kaduna and Niger states, consisting of new recruits from Darul Islam, an Islamist sect active in northern Nigeria since the 1990s. The group’s relationship with its powerful bandit partners deteriorated in late 2024, forcing fighters in Niger state to begin to relocate. (14)

Elements of the Sadiku faction have relocated to the Kainji Lake National Park area, near the Niger–Kwara state border and site of the February 3 massacres, since July 2025. Large-scale civilian massacres are not the group’s typical modus operandi, but the Sadiku fighters in Niger state were relatively more hostile toward civilians than the faction’s other cell in Kaduna state. There had also been an increase in attacks on civilians and looting raids on villages in the Niger-Kwara border area since Sadiku militants reportedly began entering the area, mirroring the tense relationship the faction’s fighters had with communities in Niger state. (15)

Aftermath

Around 176 people (mostly women, children, and some pregnant women) were kidnapped.

Nigerian troops arrived hours after the attackers had left. President Bola Tinubu launched Operation Savanna Shield in mid-to-late February 2026. This involves a dedicated battalion and coordinated Army, Navy, and Air Force operations in Kwara and parts of Niger State. The operation focuses on clearing forests (including Kainji National Park area). As per Zagazola, Nigerian troops conducted clearance operations in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State, destroying suspected terrorist makeshift camps and recovering weapons. During the operation, troops discovered and destroyed suspected terrorist camps at Nuku village. (16)

According to Sahara Reporters, Boko Haram fighters issued a one-week ultimatum to the Nigerian government to secure the release of 176 abducted women and children or risk mass execution. On April 9, victims abducted from Woro appeared in a disturbing video released by their captors, pleading for urgent rescue. The footage showed the victims, mostly women and children, weak, exhausted, and in deplorable conditions as they begged for help. An armed militant, speaking in Hausa, claimed responsibility for the abduction. Earlier, on March 16, the terrorists had demanded a ransom of N20 million per victim, with negotiations between the government and the abductors reportedly stalled. The Kwara State Government was unwilling to meet the ransom demand, leading to a deadlock. (17)

This is a still from a video released by the TikTok user @hafsatbntidris0 affiliated with the Sadiku-led JAS terrorist faction.