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Agence France-Presse

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.


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Africa

Razed homes in the Muslim-majority village of Woro, Nigeria. Photo: AP

Nigeria’s military at the scene. Photo: Reuters

Burned homes and tools. Photo: AP

People watch bodies being buried. Photo: Reuters

Soldiers patrol near burned homes. Photo: AP

People dig graves after a deadly attack by an armed gang in Katsina, Nigeria. Photo: Reuters TV

People stand around graves after a deadly attack by an armed gang in Katsina state, Nigeria. Photo: Reuters TV

A Nigerian soldier from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) loads his machine gun during training at the MNJTF military base, Sector 3 Headquarters, in Monguno, Borno state, Nigeria, on July 5 last year. Photo: AFP

Dozens of kidnapped Nigerian Christians released from captivity

Freed church worshipers at the state government house in Kaduna, Nigeria on Thursday. Photo: AP

Security officers stand guard next to a bus of freed worshippers. Photo: AFP

Razed homes after an attack that left dozens dead in the Muslim-majority village of Woro, Nigeria. Photo: AP

Islamic State claims bold attack on Niger’s strategic airport hub

The Niamey airport in Niger, where damage is visible on the roofs of hangars on Thursday. Photo: 2026 Planet Labs PBC/AFP

Men, who the Nigerien army says are detained attackers, sit with blindfolds, following an attack on Niamey International Airport on Thursday. Photo: ORTN/Reuters TV

Niger’s junta accuses foreign leaders of sponsoring attack on airport, thanks Russians

A satellite image shows roadblocks at the entrance of Diori Hamani International Airport. Photo: Vantor via Reuters

A satellite image showing military activity at Diori Hamani International Airport and military bases. Photo: Vantor via Reuters

Niger’s military ruler Abdourahamane Tiani. Photo: AFP

News

World

With 162 dead, survivors describe gunmen executing residents at close range and razing their village to ash


With 162 dead, survivors describe gunmen executing residents at close range and razing their village to ash.


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

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With 162 dead, survivors describe gunmen executing residents at close range and razing their village to ash

With 162 dead, survivors describe gunmen executing residents at close range and razing their village to ash