Islamic terrorists descended on villages in western Nigeria this week and slaughtered at least 162 people — many of them Muslims whose only offense was refusing to submit to jihadist ideology. The dead include men, women, and children across the villages of Woro, Nuku, and Patigi in Kwara state, with additional attacks claiming lives in Katsina and Benue states. Some of the bodies are still being recovered from the bush.
Approximately 200 attackers stormed Woro alone. They burned homes, looted property, and killed indiscriminately. Nigerian lawmaker Mohammed Omar Bio told the Associated Press that at least 162 people were confirmed dead in Woro and Nuku, with the toll expected to climb. The Daily Trust reported that over 130 additional deaths were anticipated once damage assessments concluded across all affected areas, including Katsina and Benue.
The attackers have been identified variously as members of Lakurawa — an Islamic State affiliate — Boko Haram, and so-called "bandits," a term Nigerian officials often use for armed jihadist groups operating in the country's north and west, according to Breitbart News. Whatever name they carry, the result is the same: mass death inflicted on defenseless communities.
The motive behind the attacks carries a particularly grim clarity. Kwara Police Commissioner Adekimi Ojo told the Daily Trust that the terrorists had previously attempted to impose their ideology on the targeted villages — and were turned away.
"We learnt there was a time they wrote a letter that they were coming to preach, but the village head refused. I am sure this incident is a kind of reprisal for that refusal."
Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq shared that 75 "local Muslims" were killed in Patigi, and that police officials believed the massacre was a direct response to the community rejecting what he characterized as a "strange doctrine." President Tinubu's office described the dead as Muslims who had:
"rejected their [the terrorists'] obnoxious attempt at indoctrination, choosing instead to practice Islam that is neither extreme nor violent."
Read that carefully. These were not soldiers. They were not political operatives. They were villagers — faithful Muslims — who told jihadists "no." And for that, they were executed.
Alhaji Salihu Bio Umar, a village leader, offered a devastating account to the Daily Trust:
"75 people have been identified and some got burnt completely beyond recognition including Muslims and Christians. Others are yet to be traced up till this moment. We estimated about a hundred people with some corpses still in the bush and my palace was burnt. However we have information that some bodies are still in the bush."
His losses were not abstract.
"Two of my sons have been killed. They left with my Highlander Jeep. They also burnt all the shops in the community."
In Katsina state, at least 20 more people were killed. In Benue state, at least 17. Reports indicated that the scale of the carnage in Woro was aided in part by locals being afraid to alert government authorities — a detail that speaks volumes about the erosion of trust between Nigerian citizens and the institutions that are supposed to protect them.
An unidentified eyewitness to the Katsina attack captured the despair plainly:
"Is there really a government in this country? They have failed us."
Boko Haram formally declared allegiance to the global Islamic State movement in 2015. In the decade since, Nigeria has become one of the deadliest places on earth for civilians of all faiths. Jihadist groups operate with near impunity in vast stretches of the country's north and west, raiding villages, conscripting fighters, and terrorizing anyone who resists their ideology. The Nigerian government's inability — or unwillingness — to secure its own territory has been a running crisis for years.
What has changed is American engagement.
President Trump declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for religious freedom in October — a formal designation that carries diplomatic weight and signals that the United States views Nigeria's security failures as a matter of international concern. On Christmas Day, Trump ordered airstrikes on northwestern Nigeria with the cooperation of President Tinubu. Experts suggested the likeliest targets of those strikes were members of Lakurawa, the same Islamic State affiliate now blamed for the Woro massacre.
On Tuesday, U.S. Africa Command confirmed that a small team of American military officers had been deployed to Nigeria to aid in the fight against terrorism. That deployment, paired with the CPC designation and the Christmas Day strikes, represents a clear escalation of American involvement — one driven by the recognition that jihadist networks in West Africa pose a threat that extends well beyond Nigeria's borders.
President Tinubu announced on Wednesday an immediate military deployment to Kwara state. His office stated that a new military command would spearhead Operation Savannah Shield to, in his words:
"checkmate the barbaric terrorists and protect defenceless communities."
Tinubu condemned the attacks directly:
"He condemned the cowardly and beastly attack and described the gunmen as heartless for choosing soft targets in their doomed campaign of terror."
Strong words. But strong words have been issued after Nigerian massacres before. The question now is whether Operation Savannah Shield amounts to a genuine strategic shift or another temporary surge that fades once international attention moves on. The deployment of American military officers suggests this time may be different — that external pressure and partnership are backing the Nigerian government's stated intentions.
One detail worth noting: Nigerian officials cannot seem to agree on who carried out the attacks. Lawmaker Mohammed Omar Bio identified the attackers as members of Lakurawa. President Tinubu's office called them Boko Haram. Others used the catch-all term "bandits." This is not a minor discrepancy. Lakurawa and Boko Haram are distinct organizations with different command structures, even if both operate under the Islamic State's ideological umbrella. If the Nigerian government cannot accurately identify the enemy, the prospects for Operation Savannah Shield dim considerably.
Effective counterterrorism requires precise intelligence. Lumping every armed group into one category — or mislabeling them for political convenience — is how governments lose wars against insurgencies. American military advisors on the ground may help sharpen that picture, but the confusion at the highest levels of Nigerian leadership is not encouraging.
The scale of this week's attacks — at least 162 confirmed dead across multiple villages, with the true toll likely far higher — represents one of the worst episodes of jihadist violence in Nigeria in recent memory. It also exposes a grim reality: the Islamic State's global network is not contained to the Middle East or North Africa. It is active, lethal, and expanding in West Africa.
The Trump administration's approach — CPC designation, direct military action on Christmas Day, and now boots on the ground in an advisory capacity — treats the Nigerian situation with the seriousness it demands. That stands in stark contrast to years of diplomatic hand-wringing that produced no meaningful change for the people of Woro, Nuku, and Patigi.
Alhaji Salihu Bio Umar lost two sons this week. His palace was burned. Bodies remain uncollected in the bush. He is not a statistic. He is a man who watched his community destroyed because its members refused to bend to terrorists.
The villages said no. Two hundred attackers made them pay for it. Now the question is whether anyone with the power to act will ensure it never happens again.
