Islamic State militants attacked Guyaku village in northeastern Nigeria overnight, killing at least 29 people, authorities said April 27. Adamawa state officials said the assault occurred late Sunday in Guyaku, located in the Gombi local government area of Adamawa, and that Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri visited the village on Monday.
Authorities said the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on the Telegram messaging app. Fintiri denounced the attack as “tragic and unacceptable,” according to reporting.
The attack added to a security crisis in Nigeria’s north, where an insurgency has simmered for more than two decades. In February, the United States sent troops to Nigeria to help advise its military on the fight against insecurity, according to the Associated Press report.
The AP reporting said it was not immediately clear which Islamic State-affiliated militant faction carried out the Guyaku attack, even though officials and analysts distinguish between different groups operating under the Islamic State banner in Nigeria. The Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, has been known to operate in the northeast, including Adamawa state, while another IS-linked group locally known as Lakurawa has often attacked villages further away in northcentral states of Sokoto and Kebbi.
The AP also placed the Guyaku attack alongside another attack elsewhere in Nigeria reported on the same day. Gunmen raided an orphanage in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state, and abducted 23 pupils, the Nigerian government said at the time that 15 were later rescued and that “intensive operations” were underway to secure the safe return of the remaining eight victims and apprehend the perpetrators.
In Kogi state, a statement from commissioner Kingsley Femi Fanwo said the attack took place in an “isolated area” of Lokoja. Fanwo said the facility, Dahallukitab Group of Schools, was operating illegally, and the report said the statement did not specify the ages of the abducted children, noting that the term “pupil” in Nigeria usually refers to children in kindergarten or primary school.
As kidnapping and attacks on schools have become defining features of insecurity in Nigeria, analysts have described how armed gangs target students and schools as “strategic” routes to draw attention. The overlap of lethal village attacks and school-related abductions underlines the scale of the crisis authorities say they face across multiple states in the north.