A new attack that killed at least 67 people struck Nigeria on Tuesday, as the country ramps up its efforts to combat endemic insecurity linked to criminal gangs and jihadists, with support from the United States.

Armed men killed at least 67 people in the village of Woro, in Kwara State, in central-western Nigeria, on Tuesday, according to the Red Cross, in an attack confirmed by the police and the state governor.

An initial report from a local legislator had first indicated at least 35 deaths.

Kwara State is plagued by multi-faceted insecurity, including armed gangs (locally called bandits) who loot villages, kidnap and terrorize residents, and a growing jihadist threat, with groups active in the northwest of the country extending their reach southward.

Faced with insecurity, local authorities imposed curfews in certain areas of the state and had closed schools for several weeks, before ordering their reopening on Monday.

"The provisional death toll stands at 67 and some people are still missing," Babaomo Ayodeji, secretary of the Kwara branch of the Nigerian Red Cross, told AFP.

He added that search and rescue operations were continuing.

"This morning (Wednesday), I was told that 35 to 40 bodies had been counted, but I could not confirm it. Many others fled into the bush under the gunfire and it is likely that more bodies will be found in the bush," Sa'idu Baba Ahmed, a member of the Kwara State Local Assembly, told AFP earlier Wednesday morning.

Mr. Ahmed added that the bandits had set fire to shops and the village's royal palace. "At present, we do not know where the king is," he lamented.

Police have confirmed the attack but have not yet provided a casualty count.

"Frustration of the terrorists"

The governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, described the attack as "a cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells following the ongoing counter-terrorism campaigns in parts of the state and the successes achieved so far."

A few days ago, the Nigerian army announced that it had "neutralized" - without specifying whether it had captured or killed them - "terrorists" (around 150, according to local media) in the Kwara forests, specifying that they were bandits.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and leading oil producer, has been facing a jihadist insurgency in the northeast since 2009, while criminal armed groups are active in the northwest and north-central regions, alongside local jihadist movements such as Lakurawa and Mahmuda.

Researchers have recently established a link between some members of Lakurawa – the main jihadist group based in Sokoto State (north) – and the Islamic State in the Sahel (ISS), active in neighboring Niger.

The rise in attacks and kidnappings had prompted Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of security emergency in the country at the end of November and to increase the size of the armed forces and police in order to intensify the fight against criminals, who generally find refuge in remote and difficult-to-access forest areas.

Insecurity in Nigeria has become a subject of interest for the United States, whose President Donald Trump claims that Christians in Nigeria are being "persecuted" and are victims of "genocide" perpetrated by "terrorists." Abuja and the majority of experts firmly deny this, as the violence generally affects Christians and Muslims indiscriminately.

The US military conducted airstrikes in Sokoto State on Christmas Day, targeting, it said, members of the Islamic State. Since then, military cooperation between the two countries has strengthened with the supply of US weaponry to Nigeria, intelligence sharing, and the deployment of a team of US military personnel to assist the Nigerian army.