At least 162 people were shot dead in cold blood on Tuesday in what officials are calling Nigeria’s deadliest terrorist attack of 2026, as jihadists rounded up villagers, tied their hands behind their backs and opened fire.
The Nigerian Red Cross confirmed the toll on Wednesday afternoon. State secretary Babaomo Ayodeji told AFP the figure stood at 162 confirmed deaths. A local politician, Sa’idu Baba Ahmed of the Kaiama region, said the real number could reach 170.
“I am in the village along with military personnel, sorting dead bodies and searching nearby areas,” Ahmed told Reuters. He described how attackers set homes and shops ablaze after the killings. Many wounded villagers fled into the surrounding bush, while several residents — including the village’s traditional ruler — remain missing.
Survivors said the gunmen were jihadists who had regularly preached in Woro. They had demanded that residents renounce allegiance to the Nigerian state and accept Sharia law. When the villagers refused, the attackers opened fire during a sermon.
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq condemned the attack as “a cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells” reacting to intensified military operations in the state.
Kwara shares a border with Niger State, where armed groups have grown increasingly active in recent months. Police acknowledged the assault but have not yet released official casualty figures.
The massacre adds to Nigeria’s long-running security nightmare jihadist violence in the north-east and north-west, banditry in the north, and persistent communal clashes in the Middle Belt. Just weeks ago, US Africa Command confirmed a small American military team had been sent to the country to bolster counter-terrorism cooperation.
As bodies are still being counted in Woro, the scale of the horror has once again laid bare the fragility of security in Nigeria’s north-central region.
