Terrorists attacked two villages in central Nigeria’s Niger State during Friday prayers, killing and kidnapping an unknown number of people before a rival militant group intervened and triggered a clash that allowed some residents to escape, survivors and a lawmaker told AFP on Saturday.
The attack took place Friday in Dikera village and nearby Binzi in Borgu Local Government Area, an area in western Niger state near Nigeria’s borders with Kebbi and Kwara states and neighboring Benin. The region has faced growing attacks by armed groups operating across the porous borders of Nigeria’s northwestern states and the Sahel.
Jibril Ahmad, a survivor of the attack in Dikera, said hundreds of fighters belonging to the Lakurawa militant group stormed the village shortly after worshippers finished Friday prayers.
“Soon after finishing the normal Friday prayer, the armed group of Lakuwara, in their hundreds, wielding guns, knives and machetes, began to attack us,” Ahmad told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He said the attackers killed some residents while accusing them of failing to follow what the militants described as the “true teachings.”
Federal lawmaker Jafaru Mohammed, who represents the area, confirmed that Binzi was also attacked. He said numerous people were killed and many others were abducted and taken into surrounding forests, including areas toward Kainji Lake.
The victims reportedly included young men and heads of households. Local accounts also said a chief imam and a village head who had recently been released from captivity were among those abducted.
The exact death toll and number of people taken remained unclear Saturday. Ahmad and Mohammed could not provide a precise figure, while Niger state police said they were aware that worshippers had been kidnapped but had not received reports of deaths at the time of their initial statement.
Police also said difficult terrain and poor roads were complicating efforts to reach the affected communities and mount rescue operations.
The violence took an unexpected turn when fighters from another militant faction, known as Mahmuda or Mamudawa, confronted the Lakurawa attackers.
Ahmad said many residents managed to flee while Lakurawa fighters were occupied fighting their rivals.
Mohammed said Mahmuda members intervened after learning about the assault and clashed with Lakurawa because of differences between the two groups. The confrontation gave some villagers an opportunity to escape, although many others were already being led into nearby forests.
Lakurawa, also spelled Lakuwara or Lukarawa, is a relatively shadowy Terrorist organization that has operated in northwestern Nigeria and across parts of the Sahel. Researchers have linked the group to Daesh Sahel Province, which operates in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
The group first emerged in communities along Nigeria’s northwestern border around 2017 and initially presented itself in some areas as a force against banditry. It has since developed into a militant organization accused of imposing strict religious rules, carrying out attacks, seizing livestock and abducting civilians.
Nigerian authorities designated Lakurawa a terrorist organization in late 2024. Its activities have added another layer to a security crisis already involving Terrorists, criminal gangs and armed groups operating in remote forests.
Mahmuda is another militant faction that has operated in the region. Nigerian authorities claimed in 2025 that they had dismantled Mahmuda and the related Ansaru group following arrests of senior members. Reports of Mahmuda fighters taking part in Friday’s clash, however, suggest that elements of the group remain active or that its networks have survived earlier operations.
The attack highlights the increasingly fragmented nature of Nigeria’s long-running insurgency.
Nigeria has battled Terrorist violence for roughly 17 years, with the conflict initially concentrated in the northeast, where Boko Haram and Daesh West Africa Province have carried out attacks, mass kidnappings and other abuses.
Mass abductions became one of the conflict’s defining tactics, most notoriously in 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok.
The violence has since spread beyond the northeast as Terrorist factions, criminal gangs and Sahel-based militants have exploited weak security, porous borders and vast forested areas where government forces have limited reach.
Niger state and neighboring areas have become increasingly vulnerable as armed groups move through border communities and use remote forests as hideouts. The security situation has also been complicated by instability in the wider Sahel, including the 2023 military coup in neighboring Niger, which disrupted established regional security arrangements.
