Gunmen have killed 162 people in west Nigeria attack, says Red Cross official

More than 160 people have been killed in a village in western Nigeria in the country's deadliest armed assault so far this year, an aid official and a local politician have said, as communities reel from repeated, widespread acts of violence perpetrated by armed gangs and jihadists, Report informs via The Guardian.

The death toll from Tuesday's attack in Woro in Kwara state stood at 162 on Wednesday afternoon, according to Babaomo Ayodeji, the Kwara state secretary of the Red Cross.

Sa'idu Baba Ahmed, a politician in the Kaiama region, told Reuters that gunmen had rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and killed them. The attackers also torched homes and shops. "As I'm speaking to you now, I'm in the village along with military personnel, sorting dead bodies and combing the surrounding areas for more," Ahmed said, putting the toll at 170.

Ahmed said many people had fled into the surrounding bushland with gunshot wounds and that the whereabouts of several people, including the village's traditional king, were unknown.