Local politician says armed men rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and shot them
More than 160 people have been killed in two villages in western Nigeria in the country’s deadliest armed assaults this year, as communities reel from repeated and widespread acts of violence perpetrated by jihadists and other armed groups.
The death toll from Tuesday’s attacks in Woro and Nuku in Kwara state stood at 162 on Wednesday afternoon, according to Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area.
He told the Associated Press that the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with Islamic State, had carried out the attacks. No one has claimed responsibility.
Fucking awful. Where’s the sense in doing this? I don’t know how one human can do this to another.
Residents told Reuters the gunmen were jihadists who often preached in the village and that they demanded that locals ditch their allegiance to the Nigerian state and switch to sharia law. When the villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire during Tuesday’s sermon, they said.
The motive almost certainly is power - gaining and maintaining it.
I think it’s a sign of good character to not be able to fathom doing this. Unfortunately however, we have to keep in mind that humans can be manipulated to anything, given the according circumstances.
