terror

As Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, prayer, and reflection, entered its second week, specifically on March 5, terrorists from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked multiple military positions in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, in a single night.  

The attacks killed at least 16 soldiers and officers. The following day, a suicide car bomb detonated near Njimya village inside Sambisa Forest, forcing Nigerian troops to retreat.

That same week, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, convened a closed-door security meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. When he came out, his explanation for the rise in attacks was unusually direct.

“As usual with the terrorists during the Ramadan period,” he told journalists, “they feel when they die, they are going to heaven, so they are ready to commit any offence or get killed because they believe there is a reward.”

He assured Nigerians that security forces had adjusted their strategies. “You can see in the past few days we’ve taken over those locations. We’ve killed their commanders and taken over their assets. We’ll continue to do more,” he said.

The assurance arrived against a backdrop of twelve confirmed attacks on Nigerian military bases since January 2025 — eleven of them in Borno State alone.

However, the violence did not stop. 

On March 17, three suspected suicide bombings rocked Maiduguri, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others. The military said the attacks were carried out by “suspected Boko Haram terrorists”. Earlier, on March 6, terrorists from Jama’atu Ahlussunnah Liddaawati Wal Jihad (JAS), also known as Boko Haram, attacked Ngoshe in Borno’s Gwoza Local Government Area (LGA), abducting over 300 people and killing more than a hundred.

The real question is whether Ramadan genuinely drives this violence, or whether it merely overlaps with a war that was already escalating. HumAngle’s analysis of Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED)’s five-year data shows the answer is both. 

But only one part of that answer is getting worse.

Sacred month recast as a season of war

Just as it encourages insurgents to migrate to Africa, the Islamic State, ISWAP’s parent organisation, has long designated Ramadan as what its propaganda formally frames as a “season of jihad and harvest”. 

The ideological foundation reaches back to events central to Muslim memory.

Prophet Muhammad waged his first major battle, the Battle of Badr, in 624 CE, during Ramadan. The conquest of Mecca in 630 CE also fell within the month.

For ordinary Muslims, these are historical moments shaped by circumstances. For jihadist organisations, they are annual instructions.

While mainstream Islam understands Ramadan as a month of fasting, prayer, and restraint, jihadist ideology inverts this completely. In their reading, violence is not a departure from religion — it is its highest expression. For them, history is more than a context; it is a whole calendar.

JAS was the first Nigerian jihadi organisation to work from this theology, though inconsistently. Its former leader, Abubakar Shekau, was unpredictable. During his time, attacks came when opportunity appeared, not when doctrine demanded. 

ISWAP, which split from JAS in 2016, partly over Shekau’s methods, brought a different discipline. Trained by Islamic State commanders who operate on fixed ideological cycles, ISWAP insurgents do not treat Ramadan as one month among twelve. They treat it as a deadline. For them, the 2026 attacks were deliverables.

What the data shows and what it doesn’t 

Between 2021 and early 2026, Nigeria recorded 20,317 violent incidents involving armed groups: battles, explosions, and attacks on civilians, according to ACLED. Of these, 1,774 occurred during the months of Ramadan. That is roughly one in every twelve incidents nationally occurring in a month that lasts one in twelve months. On the surface, there is no obvious spike.

The total number of annual attacks also climbed sharply, from 3,269 in 2021 to 5,242 in 2025, a 60 per cent rise in four years. Ramadan months tracked that general rise without breaking dramatically above it. When you count incidents per day rather than per month — which is fairer, since Ramadan is only 30 days — the Ramadan daily rate of 9.5 attacks only sits slightly below the non-Ramadan daily rate of 10.2. If anything, the country as a whole is marginally quieter during Ramadan than outside it.

But that national picture hides a more important local one.

Borno State alone accounts for 277 of Nigeria’s 1,774 Ramadan incidents — more than Zamfara and Kaduna combined, two states notorious for non-jihadi terrorism. Most of Borno’s violence traces to either ISWAP or JAS. And ISWAP’s Ramadan record tells a completely different story from the national trend.

In 2021, ISWAP recorded zero Ramadan attacks in the data. By 2022, that number rose to 7; by 2023, 16; by 2024, 12; and by 2025, 19. In the first three weeks of Ramadan in 2026, the figure had already reached 31, ISWAP’s highest Ramadan count on record as of the time of filing this report.

Every other major actor in the data, including communal militias from Kaduna, Zamfara, and Katsina, unidentified armed groups, and even the Nigerian military, shows a flat or inconsistent Ramadan pattern. ISWAP alone shows a line pointing upward, year after year, specifically during the holy month. 

What does this mean at the national scale? ISWAP accounts for just 85 incidents across all Ramadan periods in the dataset — 4.8 per cent of all Ramadan violence in Nigeria. The majority of other attacks during Ramadan are carried out by non-jihadi terrorists, communal fighters, and unidentified groups with no relationship to the Islamic calendar whatsoever. 

From the data, we can deduce that Nigeria’s broad Ramadan violence problem is a governance crisis. But  ISWAP’s Ramadan violence problem is an ideological one — and it is the only one that is systematically growing.

 The tactical evolution

What distinguishes ISWAP’s Ramadan 2026 campaign from previous years is not its scale, but its method.

The group has launched at least twelve coordinated attacks on military bases and infrastructure across Borno State since January 2025 alone — a pace comparable only to its 2018-2019 operational tempo, the period when it briefly seized Baga, the Lake Chad headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force.

The March 5 night assault hit multiple locations simultaneously. 

In April 2025, fighters detonated IEDs on bridges along the Biu-Damboa road, cutting off military reinforcements to a surrounded town. This is a deliberate encirclement strategy designed to isolate and starve bases of supply.

The weapons have changed, too. ISWAP insurgents have used armed drones, rocket-propelled grenades capable of destroying armoured vehicles, and suicide car bombs. These are not the weapons of an organisation improvising from local materials; they suggest sustained external supply chains.

Reports indicate that foreign insurgents have also entered and compounded the situation. At least ten have been killed in the past two years during engagements with regional security forces, including a Senegalese national previously resident in Sweden. Cameroonian forces also killed additional foreign insurgents in February 2026 near the border. 

The internationalisation of ISWAP’s fighter pool reflects the Islamic State’s central documented effort to reinforce its West African province ahead of what its propaganda calls the Ramadan offensive season.

State-backed regional cooperation, meanwhile, has deteriorated. Niger’s withdrawal from the Multinational Joint Task Force in March 2025 disrupted intelligence-sharing arrangements and opened corridors along the Nigeria-Niger border, which ISWAP has since exploited. 

The geography of an insurgency 

The ACLED data draws a line across Nigeria. To the North East of it, in Borno and Yobe, jihadist Ramadan operations follow a doctrinal tempo. But in the northwestern region – in Zamfara, Kaduna, and Katsina – and in the North Central, Ramadan-period violence is driven by land disputes, ethnic militia competition, and criminal enterprise. These conflicts share a calendar window, not a cause.

The distinction matters. Strategies built to counter ISWAP’s religious framing will not reduce militia attacks or cult violence in other states. Operations designed for terror suppression in Zamfara are poorly suited to ISWAP’s organised, doctrinally motivated attacks in Borno. Nigeria is not fighting one war during Ramadan. It is fighting several actors with different motives.

The northern Muslim-majority states make this clearest. Kano recorded 18 Ramadan incidents across five years. Jigawa recorded five. Gombe, three. These are some of Nigeria’s largest Muslim populations. 

However, the infrastructure that turns a holy month into an operational order – the preachers, the propaganda, the pipeline from grievance to detonation – is not spread across Muslim Nigeria. It is concentrated, almost entirely, around Lake Chad.

Overall, Nigeria’s conflict is worsening across all months, actors, and regions. A 60 per cent rise in four years is a trend that contains every other story, and  Ramadan does not create that trajectory. But for one group, in one geography, with one ideology, it sharpens it.  And that group is growing faster, fighting harder, and planning more carefully than it was this time last year.

“If they rebuild and you return, we will kill you.” 

That was the threat Abubakar Dalwa received before fleeing to Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital in northeastern Nigeria, on the night of March 8. Abubakar was sitting in the compound of his home in Dalwa, a recently resettled community in Konduga, a few kilometres from Maiduguri, with his children and wife. The children slept curled together on a plastic mat while his wife tended a pot over the fire. It was during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, and she was preparing the meal they would eat before dawn.

Then the gunfire came in rapid succession around 10:20 p.m. The children woke up as Abubakar and his wife rushed them inside the room. Moments later, someone began knocking impatiently on the door.

“Open this door,” the person shouted. Abubakar’s wife clung tightly to him. He stepped outside and opened the door. About ten armed men stood in the darkness. Most wore military camouflage. Others were dressed in black uniforms. Belts of ammunition hung across their shoulders, some trailing toward the ground.

“They told me, ‘Get out and leave for Yerwa [Maiduguri],’” Abubakar recalled. The terrorists said they had come to burn the buildings. “They told me the buildings belonged to the government,” he added. “They said their fight was with the government, not us.”

Abubakar did not argue. By then, it was nearly midnight. He gathered his wife and children and fled into the darkness. “We left without taking anything,” he said.

Behind them, the town burned, and three people were killed: a man, a woman, and her baby. The man’s daughter survived but was shot in the leg. She was later taken to the Maimalari Cantonment Hospital in Maiduguri.

By 2 a.m., Abubakar and his family had reached the city. Soldiers received them at a military checkpoint. They were displaced again. 

The assault on Dalwa was not an isolated raid. On the same night, another attack was unfolding hundreds of kilometres away in Kukawa. A member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) stationed there said the terrorists attacked around midnight.

“They killed our men, including our Commanding Officer, carted away weapons and vehicles, burnt one building,” he said.

The seizure of weapons and vehicles during these attacks has become a recurring feature of recent raids across Borno, weakening security formations in rural areas and forcing some forces to consolidate around larger bases closer to Maiduguri.

How the attacks unfolded

In Dalwa, the attack lasted about an hour. A frontline member of the NFSS said the terrorists entered the town after overpowering the security units stationed there. “We knew they would overpower us from the first sounds of their gunfire,” he said.

Many of the terrorists carried heavy weapons, including PKT machine guns capable of sustaining rapid fire; others carried rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

The terrorists strategically positioned themselves in Dalwa. “They went from house to house,” the NFSS member said. “They ordered residents to leave the town.” Then they began setting buildings on fire.

Security officers attempted to resist the attack. They sought reinforcements from Maiduguri, but the vehicles sent to support them ran into buried landmines. Two soldiers were killed in the explosions. “And so we retreated,” the NFSS member said.

According to the volunteer security operative, the attackers approached Dalwa in coordinated groups. One group blocked the road leading to Damboa. Another positioned itself at the entrance of the town near a cemetery on the outskirts. A third group advanced directly into the town to engage the security forces.

“They came through the eastern side,” he said. “That used to be the original Dalwa before the first displacement.”

The security volunteers estimated the number of attackers to be between 80 and 100. Most of them arrived on foot, while others rode on motorcycles, they said.

During the March 8 attack, only about 20 soldiers were stationed in the town. Volunteer forces, including members of the NFSS, CJTF, and repentant terrorists known locally as “the hybrid”, numbered fewer than 100. Five days before the raid, surveillance drones had spotted terrorists gathering in nearby areas. “We anticipated the attack,” the NFSS member said.

But anticipation did not stop it. “The attacks keep increasing,” he added. “More than the previous year.”

In Kukawa, the insurgents used similar tactics. A CJTF member stationed there said the attackers arrived in three coordinated groups. One advanced toward the military base. Another waited on the outskirts of the town. A third group positioned itself along the road leading to Cross Kauwa to ambush reinforcements. He claimed that more than 200 fighters participated in the assault.

“They came mostly on foot,” he said. “They were all wearing military camouflage.”

The fighting lasted about three hours. After the terrorists withdrew, the commanding officer of the base, Umar Farouq, pursued them with a convoy, which was later ambushed, and most of his men were killed.

A pattern of attacks on rural security

The recent attacks on Dalwa and Kukawa are part of a broader pattern. Across Borno State, terrorists have increasingly targeted military bases, convoys, and resettled communities, often ambushing reinforcements and seizing weapons and vehicles during the attacks. Security volunteers say these raids are gradually weakening smaller rural security formations and concentrating forces around larger garrison towns closer to Maiduguri, leaving many outlying communities increasingly exposed.

The incidents suggest a deliberate campaign by terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Their strategy appears to involve weakening security forces, isolating rural communities, and driving civilians out of resettled towns. These attacks are occurring against the backdrop of a significant government policy.

Over the past years, the Borno State government has implemented a resettlement programme to close camps for internally displaced persons and return families to their hometowns.

The resettlement schemes started in 2020 when the state government began rebuilding homes, schools, clinics, and public facilities in previously abandoned communities as part of what was described as a transition toward a “post-conflict recovery phase”. Thousands of displaced residents have been moved out of camps in Maiduguri and returned either to their original communities or to nearby host settlements considered relatively secure.

But the recovery effort depends heavily on movement. Contractors, labourers, and materials must travel from Maiduguri into rural areas. That movement has increasingly become a point of vulnerability. Roads leading to resettled communities have suffered damage or been mined, isolating towns and delaying military reinforcements. When security forces attempt to respond, they often encounter roadside bombs or ambushes along the routes connecting rural communities to larger bases. Military installations themselves have also become targets. Such attacks on bases allow terrorists to seize weapons, vehicles, and ammunition that can be used in subsequent operations while weakening already thinly stretched security formations in rural areas.

On March 5, terrorists attacked a military base in Konduga, burning several buildings. A member of the Nigerian Forest Security Service (NFSS) told HumAngle that several soldiers were killed, and vehicles and weapons were stolen. Two days earlier, on March 3, the insurgents attacked Ngoshe, a town under the Gwoza Local Government Area (LGA) that had been resettled since 2020. The attackers first targeted a military base before spreading through the town and setting houses ablaze. Local sources and survivors said the attack lasted several hours and forced thousands to flee. Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, condemned the attack on March 6, describing it as a “heartless assault on helpless citizens” and directing security agencies to rescue those abducted.

Earlier attacks followed a similar pattern.

On Feb. 14, terrorists attacked a military base in Pulka, about ten kilometres from Ngoshe. On Feb. 5, another attack targeted a base in Auno along the Maiduguri-Damaturu road, according to a military source who asked not to be named. Several soldiers were killed, and vehicles were taken.

On Jan. 28, about 30 construction workers were killed in Sabon Gari in Damboa. The same day, terrorists attacked an army base in the town, killing nine soldiers and two members of the CJTF. A military base in Damasak was also overrun by terrorists, who killed seven soldiers, captured 13 others, including their commanding officer. 

Earlier incidents also targeted reconstruction efforts and security infrastructure. On Dec. 25, 2025, a suicide bomber detonated at a mosque in the Gamboru Market area of Maiduguri. Five people were killed, and 35 others were injured. On Nov. 17 of the same year, workers fled after terrorists stormed a construction site in the Mayanti area of Bama. In the same town, terrorists attacked the Darajamal community in September last year, killing at least 63 people, including five soldiers, and burning about 24 houses.

On Nov. 20, the attackers invaded a CJTF base in Warabe, killing eight people and leaving three others missing. On Nov. 14, terrorists ambushed a military convoy along the Damboa-Biu road. Two soldiers and two CJTF members were killed. Brigadier General M. Uba, the Brigade Commander of the 25 Task Force Brigade, was abducted and later killed.

HumAngle has previously reported that terror groups have undergone several technological shifts that have expanded their attacks and operations, including the use of drones. Despite the violence, the resettlement programme continues. On Jan. 28, the Borno State government received about 300 Nigerian refugees from Cameroon and resettled them in Pulka. The government later received 680 more refugees on Feb. 8.

Why are the attacks happening?

Umara Ibrahim, a professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at the University of Maiduguri, said the attacks may be aimed at constraining the government’s resettlement efforts.

“Because their movements are observed and monitored, and perhaps challenged, it is not in their interest for resettlement to proliferate,” he told HumAngle during a February interview.

The attacks also serve a logistical purpose.

“Some of their tactics include ambushing and carting away weapons and supplies from peripheral bases in unfortified areas,” the professor said. “It also includes attacks on bases, especially in places where backup might take time to arrive.”

As attacks on rural bases continue, residents and volunteer security operatives say the shrinking presence of security forces in some outlying communities is raising fears that large parts of rural Borno may again become vulnerable.

Many of these families, now fleeing towns like Dalwa, had already experienced displacement. Some years ago, insurgent violence forced them to abandon their homes and seek refuge in camps around Maiduguri. When the government announced resettlement plans, they returned. They rebuilt their lives slowly. Children went back to school. Farmers returned to their fields.

Now they are running again, and the promise of returning home is once again slipping out of reach.

DALLAS — A federal jury Friday convicted nine people — eight on terrorism charges — over a shooting at a Texas immigration facility that federal prosecutors tied to antifa, the decentralized far-left movement that has become a target of the Trump administration.

One person was also found guilty of attempted murder after prosecutors say he opened fire last summer outside the Prairieland Detention Center outside Fort Worth, wounding a police officer. The Justice Department called the violence an attack plotted by antifa operatives, but attorneys for the accused denied that characterization, saying there were no antifa associations and that there was merely a demonstration with fireworks before gunshots broke out.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of President Trump, presided over the nearly three-week trial in Fort Worth. It was closely followed by legal experts and critics who called the proceedings a test of the lengths the government can go to punish protesters.

FBI Director Kash Patel had said the case was the first time charges of providing material support to terrorists had targeted people accused of being antifa members.

“Today’s verdict on terrorism charges will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles Antifa and finally halts their violence on America’s streets,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not an organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

Protesters denied having antifa ties

Defense attorneys told jurors that there was no plan for violence on July 4 outside the facility in Alvarado.

Of the nine defendants on trial, eight faced the charge of providing material support to terrorists, among other charges. The ninth defendant, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was charged with corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents. He was found guilty of both.

Sanchez Estrada’s attorney, Christopher Weinbel, said he can’t believe jurors “came to this conclusion.” Weinbel said his client had deployed as a member of the U.S. Army several times and he’d hoped what he sacrificed for the country “meant something.”

“But I feel like it turned its back on justice with this. … The U.S. lost today with this verdict,” Weinbel said.

Prosecutor Shawn Smith told jurors during closing arguments that the group’s actions — including bringing firearms and first aid kits and wearing body armor — were all signs of nefarious intent. He said they practiced “antifa tactics” and were “obsessed with operational security.”

Attorneys for the defendants have said that there was no planned ambush and that protesters who brought firearms did so for their own protection — in a state with very lenient gun laws.

A test of 1st Amendment rights

The terrorism charges followed Trump’s order last fall to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Those charges did not require a tie to any organization, and there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. That’s in part because organizations operating within the United States are protected by broad 1st Amendment rights.

Critics of the Justice Department’s case have said the outcome could have wide-reaching effects on protests.

“That opposition is something that the government wants to squash, so a case like this helps the government kind of see how far they can go in criminalizing constitutionally protected protests and also helps them kind of intimidate, increase the fear, hoping that folks in other cities then will think twice over protesting,” said Suzanne Adely, interim president of the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive legal group.

Trial focused on shots fired

Attorneys for the defendants have said most protesters began leaving when two guards from the center came outside. That was before any shots were fired.

Prosecutors said Benjamin Song, a former Marine Corps reservist, yelled, “Get to the rifles,” and opened fire, striking one police officer who had just pulled up to the center.

Though it was Song who opened fire, prosecutors charged several other protesters with attempted murder of an officer and discharging a firearm, but they were found not guilty. The prosecution had argued that from the group’s planning, it was foreseeable to those others that a shooting could happen.

The officer who was shot, Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross, testified that when responding to the scene he saw a person clad in all-black with their face covered and carrying a rifle. He told jurors he was shot with a round that went into his shoulder and out of his neck.

Song’s attorney, Phillip Hayes, told jurors during closing arguments that there wasn’t a call to arms before Gross arrived on the scene and “aggressively” pulled out his firearm. Hayes suggested that Song’s shots were “suppressive fire” and that a ricochet bullet hit the officer.

Leading up to the trial, several people pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists after being accused of supporting antifa. They face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing.

Some of them testified for the prosecution, including Seth Sikes, who said he went to the detention center because he wanted to bring some joy to those held inside.

“I felt like I was doing the right thing,” he said.

Stengle writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

Police vowed Friday to detain any suspects behind possible terror threats targeting K-pop juggernaut BTS‘ comeback concert set to draw hundreds of thousands to downtown Seoul next week.

The group is scheduled to perform before some 22,000 fans in Gwanghwamun Square on March 21, with police estimating as many as 260,000 people to gather around the area that day.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it would deploy police commandos to inspect the site, noting it could not rule out the possibility of terror in connection with the current conflict in the Middle East.

“If police resources are wasted or the event is disrupted due to public threats, such as bomb threats, (we) will pursue and apprehend (the suspects) to the end under the principle of investigation under detention,” it said.

Police plan to set up metal detectors at the venue’s entrances as well as barricades to prevent possible accidents or acts of terror, such as a vehicle-ramming attack.

They also asked concertgoers to minimize personal items as security checks will be strengthened.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

For years, Magaluf has been a go-to party resort for Brits seeking fun in the sun. But a darker side to the tourist spot has emerged, with reports of spiked drinks, sexual assaults, and rape

With the promise of sun, sand, booze, and parties, Magaluf is a major party resort – but beneath it hides a dark underbelly. Popular amongst a younger demographic, it’s been seen to epitomise a typical ‘lads holiday’ or girls’ trip abroad, with tens of thousands of British 18 to 30-year-olds flocking there each summer.

Dubbed ‘Shagaluf’, alcohol-sodden tourists descend on the ‘strip’ in their droves, lured through the promise of cheap accommodation, cheap booze, and no-strings sex. However, it hides a seedier scene where vulnerable young girls are being exploited – duped into drinking too much and pressured into sex acts.

In 2014, viral mobile phone footage showed a British 18-year-old giving oral sex to 24 men on a Carnage Magaluf pub crawl, egged on by a DJ who called her a ‘slag’. The ‘prize’ was a free drink. In the horrifying video obtained by our newspaper, the vile music host is seen shouting: “This is Carnage and this is what we do” as a no-holds-barred sex act takes place in the middle of a bar. When the girl appears to stop, the DJ – who has a Geordie accent – bellows: “You little sl*g, stop f****** about. This is Carnage and this is what we do. We need to see someone get b*nged here don’t we? Who wants to see someone get sh**ged?”

And this week, eight men were jailed after a British teenager was filmed being gang-raped at a hotel in Magaluf. The accused, seven French nationals and one man from Sweden, subjected the 18-year-old to a sickening attack in at the BH Mallorca Resort on August 14, 2023.

The men agreed to plead guilty in exchange for reduced sentences. The five rapists accepted jail terms of nine to 11 years for sexual assault, with three receiving higher prison sentences because they repeated their crimes. The three men who didn’t take part in the sex attack but filmed it were handed prison sentences of two years and three months.

Reports at the time said three of the suspects had met the girl hours earlier while partying in Magaluf. After sexually attacking her, one went out into the hotel corridor to encourage strangers returning from their own night out to have ‘free sex’ with her.

“There, the accused men, during approximately half an hour, aware of the semi-conscious state the young woman was in and at one point seeing she had fallen in a state of unconsciousness, and taking advantage of the closed room she had been taken into, stripped her naked leaving her with only her bra on,” a 14-page indictment laying out the public prosecution case read.

“They then carried out different sexual acts on her, acting by common consent and without her consent.” The indictment further detailed how the woman had been raped, spat on, and “hit and smacked”.

“The accused men, each one with a mobile phone, throughout the actions previously described, recorded several videos focusing on the young woman’s private parts in which they appeared forcing her to to carry out sexual acts,” it added. One of the suspects was accused of filming 14 videos lasting 170 seconds, and another of filming five videos lasting 142 seconds.

Sadly, it’s not an unusual story. The dark underbelly of Magaluf was explored in the 2024 Channel 4 documentary Magaluf Undercover: Predators and Parties. It followed journalists Ellie Flynn and Emily Birtley as they went undercover for three nights, posing as drunk or vulnerable tourists to expose the predatory behaviour on the strip, in clubs, and on the beach.

In one instance, footage saw Ellie pretend to be drunk and slump on a sun lounger before being approached by two men. One asks: “Are you good? Do you want to talk for a little bit?” When she replies, “I’m good”, he continues to bombard her, saying: “You are my last chance, do you want to kiss a little bit?”

Ellie tells him “No”, and secret cameras, hidden around the lounger, show the man walking away. But instead of leaving, he goes to recruit another man. “She’s completely wasted,” he tells him in Spanish, before calling out “Let’s go for it.” A third man then moves in beside Ellie on the sun lounger saying: “If you want, I can keep you company.”

Reflecting on the encounter, Ellie said: “The arrival of the third male ­startled and genuinely scared me. I had seen the first two together, but the sudden appearance of another – and having no idea at the time if they were together – was enough for me to signal security to get me out.

“I leave the beach upset and frightened, feeling like I’ve experienced an orchestrated attempt to target drunk women alone on a night out in Magaluf. Shockingly, this was not an ­isolated incident, but a pattern that emerged across my three nights in the resort town.”

Another young woman, meanwhile, said she ended up alone on the beach after her drink was spiked. “I just started to feel worse and worse. I could barely speak, I could barely walk,” she said.

We spoke to Ellie about the latest arrest of the eight men – and the dangers that women can face abroad. She told the Mirror: “It’s just so horrifying, isn’t it? I guess first impressions are just, I’m so, so sorry for that girl, what she’s been through.

“I think having been on these holidays when I was younger myself – I went to Magaluf when I was younger – and similar places, I think I really understand some of the problematic culture there.

“I think that these holidays, unfortunately, can create a breeding ground for this kind of behaviour, because you have young people who are particularly vulnerable, perhaps away from home for the first time, with their friends, trying to have a good time, drinking, trying to party.

“And unfortunately, there are predatory people there who are looking to take advantage of those vulnerabilities. I think what’s so shocking about this case [is that] it’s not even the first or the only one of these kind of horrific group rapes. It says so much, I think, about this toxic culture that eight people got involved with that.”

Dr Charlotte Proudman, a barrister and academic who specialises in women’s rights, echoes these concerns, and believes the problem has been fuelled by the so-called ‘manosphere’ – an online space that often champions masculinity to the extreme. The online space includes content creators with huge followings, such as HS Tikky Tokky, who promote the ideals of masculinity – and even misogyny – via YouTube videos and podcasts.

“What we are seeing in places like Magaluf is the collision of toxic online misogyny with a holiday culture of excess, where alcohol, group dynamics and anonymity embolden some men to act with shocking entitlement towards women’s bodies,” she tells The Mirror.

“The influence of the ‘manosphere’ has normalised the dehumanisation of women and the idea that sexual aggression is a form of male bonding or status,” Dr Proudman explains. “The fact that some perpetrators even film these attacks is profoundly disturbing; it shows that for some men, sexual violence is not only committed but performed for an audience for entertainment.

“This is not about lowered inhibitions on holiday, it is about a culture that still allows misogyny and sexual violence to be trivialised, excused and, in some cases, celebrated.”

Indeed, an independent survey undertaken as part of the documentary exposed disturbing levels of predatory behaviour and sexual abuse – primarily toward women – on party holidays. The survey, which asked over 500 men and women aged 18 to 35 about their experience on party holidays, revealed:

• Almost of quarter of those surveyed said they’d experienced sexual assault with almost 1 in 10 women reporting experience of a sex act – including rape – without consent
• Nearly 35 percent of women reported unwanted sexual touching whilst on a party holiday
• 1 in 5 of the men surveyed admitting to touching a stranger in an intimate area without their consent
• More than 30 percent of the men surveyed admitted they had kissed someone without their consent during a night out on holiday
• Nearly a quarter of men believed that someone dancing or standing alone indicated they were looking for a sexual partner
• 33 percent of the women reported they had been followed whilst on holiday
• Nearly 40 percent of women surveyed felt that they had been taken advantage of whilst being alone on a party holiday
• More than 1 in 4 of the men believed that someone chatting to them on a night out meant that person wanted to be sexually intimate with them

In an effort to take control back on the streets of Magaluf, the government passed a new law in January 2020 to target “tourism of excesses and for the improvement of quality in tourist zones”.

At the time of the approval of the decree, Balearic tourism minister Iago Negueruela stated that it represented “one more commitment to a sustainable tourism of quality” and that it was part of “the fight against anti-social behaviour caused by excessive consumption of alcohol”.

Key rules include a six-drink limit per day for all-inclusive guests, a ban on shop alcohol sales between 9:30 PM and 8 AM, and prohibitions on pub crawls. There are also fines for being topless and naked in public, and the police presence has increased.

Ellie added that “it’s really hard to imagine and it’s horrifying” that one of the men went into the corridor and offered ‘free sex’ with the teenager, saying: “It’s almost difficult to um comprehend that anybody would respond to that in any way other than calling the police.

“I think it’s really symptomatic of how dangerous these holidays or these kind of environments can be, not just for women but you know mostly for young women.

“What I find the most shocking about it is the fact that they were, it’s such a bleak fact that this group of men who did not know each other, thought that this was something they would get involved in and I think that it shows how pervasive this kind of this culture of abuse of women is because you know in that environment people were willing to get involved in the most horrific crime.

“There’s something about these holidays, I think, where hedonism and abuse, the lines become so blurred and I think that people kind of go in with these attitudes of wanting to have sex, wanting to meet people, and unfortunately what we see in a society where, like, women are systematically abused and often used for kind of male gratification is this blurring of lines between sort of hedonism and trying to have fun and then really really serious abuse.”

When making her own documentary and surveying holidaymakers, Ellie noted, “a huge percentage of the men that we surveyed thought that someone standing near you was an indication that they might be interested in sex”. She added, “it was so shocking and I think there is this assumption that if you are on these holidays, if you’re out with your friends having a good time, having a drink that somehow that that makes you you know constantly available for sex – you know even if you’re unconscious”. Een if someone is “showing no signs at all that is what you want, there are people out there who will take advantage of the fact that you that you were just there”.

She added, “That was what really shocked me about the documentary,” pointing out that some people responded to the documentary in bizarre ways, “there were people who were replying to me on Instagram who were like, ‘Well you know, why would you go somewhere like Magaluf if you weren’t prepared to experience something like that?’ And I think it shows that we have such a long way to go in terms of actually stopping Violence against women and girls.”

Discussing the algorithmic silos that see totally different conversations about gender, sexual violence, and abuse taking place at once, Ellie said: “We’ve never seen a further divide between young men and young women and their views and their experiences.

“And there was a period in time where I think it felt like things were moving in the right direction. You know, we were taking women seriously, and we were listening to their stories and we were, saying all the right things to try and combat violence against women and girls and stop this kind of insidious abuse, but you know at the same time you have the rise of, you know, certain influencers and the manosphere and this kind of narrative that young boys are isolated and don’t know how to treat girls and are scared of kind of making any approaches, and and we have these kind of two conversations happening simultaneously and taking people down in completely different directions and I think that is where things are now particularly concerning.”

She added that “on one side you have young men,” hearing one message and “almost being justified in some cases in the abuse of women and in this mistreatment of women and in degrading women, because there are people, there are high profile figures, who have made them feel like it’s okay to do that.”

Ellie continued, “It’s clear that we need to be having conversations that include both sides of this argument.” She adds, “I have two sons and I don’t want them to grow up feeling like they are inherently bad because they are male, that’s not true, and I think that somewhere along the way that’s a narrative that some young boys have learned to believe, and so things have gone wrong in a sense that things have gone that way, but also ignoring the very real epidemic of violence against women and girls and highlighting those issues isn’t the answer. We should be able to do both at the same time.”

The Foreign Office has issued fresh security warnings for British tourists after a drone strike on RAF Akrotiri raised fears the Middle East conflict could spill into the Mediterranean

Britons heading to Cyprus have been issued a fresh security warning after the Foreign Office said terror attacks “cannot be ruled out” on the popular holiday island.

The updated travel advice came days after a suspected drone strike hit the RAF’s Akrotiri airbase on March 2 2026, in an incident linked to the escalating war in the Middle East. Officials say the attack caused only minimal damage and no casualties – but it has raised fears the conflict could spill closer to Europe.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) updated its guidance on Thursday, warning travellers about the risk of further incidents and urging British nationals to stay alert.

It said: “Regional escalation poses significant security risks and has led to travel disruption.”

Cypriot authorities have warned that the island could be drawn into the crisis because of the British sovereign bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which are used for operations across the region.

With British and allied aircraft operating from RAF Akrotiri, security analysts suggest the island has gained strategic importance in the current confrontation involving Iran and its proxies. RAF Akrotiri is the UK’s largest overseas airbase and has been deployed for missions against ISIS in Syria and Iraq as well as strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Against that backdrop, the Foreign Office has updated its Cyprus guidance to say terrorist attacks remain a possibility. It also warned that the wider regional situation could affect travel.

The FCDO urged Brits visiting the island to:

• monitor local and international media
• follow instructions from local authorities
• keep travel plans under review
• ensure travel documents are up to date

Officials also said Brits inside the British sovereign base areas should follow instructions issued by the Sovereign Base Areas Administration.

Hundreds of thousands of Brits visit

Cyprus is one of the most popular holiday destinations for UK travellers, with hundreds of thousands of Brits visiting each year. While officials stress that tourist areas remain open and functioning normally, the updated warning reflects growing concern that the regional conflict could bring further security incidents.

The Foreign Office said travellers should remember that “no travel can be guaranteed safe” and urged anyone visiting the island to sign up for government travel alerts.

Fifty-five-year-old Tabitha Iorchon used to work as a nanny at a rural primary school in her community, Demevaa, in Chanchanji District of Takum Local Government Area, in Taraba State, northeastern Nigeria. The job provided her with a steady income which she used to support her children and grandchildren who lived with her. She supplemented her earnings with farming. 

Tabitha loved her job and was very fond of the children she cared for. 

But that life has been snatched from her. 

In September 2025, terrorists invaded Demevaa and surrounding communities in Chanchanji District. “They killed pregnant women and ripped their babies out of their bellies. They slaughtered men and cut off the hands of many people,” she recounted. 

Tabitha is among those who escaped that night of terror. She, alongside other residents, fled to reach Chanchanji town, where they are now living in displacement. Her parents, who lived in a different neighbourhood and were weak and vulnerable, were left behind, but fortunately, they survived the attacks.

The genesis of violence

This is not the first time communities in southern Taraba have come under attack. However, locals say that early September last year was when the wave of violence reached Chanchanji District. It began with the discovery of two farmers dead on their farms. Before residents could make sense of the incident, more farmers were attacked and killed. The weeks that followed saw communities like Demevaa and Amadu raided.

Over the years, Taraba communities, such as those within Takum bordering Benue, have experienced attacks often described as farmers-herders clashes or carried out by local militia gangs. One of the most notorious figures linked to violence in the region was Terwase Akwaza, alias Gana, who, before his death, claimed that terrorists disguised as herders contacted him to carry out attacks in “about three states they want to [capture], being Plateau, Taraba, Benue…”. 

Since the Nigerian Army killed Gana in September 2020, his once-cohesive network has fractured into rival factions, with groups led by criminals such as Fullfire and Chen now operating independently and often violently in border areas.

Residents in Chanchanji told HumAngle that herders often come to graze in the area during the dry season, but clashes have never occurred. HumAngle contacted Lashen James, the Taraba State Police Command spokesperson, but he did not respond.

Life in displacement 

In the wake of the attacks, several displacement camps were established by non-government and faith-based organisations in Chanchanji town, an urban area in Takum to accommodate people fleeing the violence in Demevaa, Amadu, Tse-Bawa, Tse-Tseve, and other affected communities within the district. 

Tabitha and several other displaced persons sought refuge at one of the camps. There, they rely on humanitarian organisations for survival. Although the food supplies are inconsistent, she said they felt somewhat safer there.

“Old people and children were dying because there was insufficient food,” she noted. “Our yams, guinea corn, millet and cassava were all destroyed and burnt by the terrorists who attacked our people.”

Tabitha said that even the tents in the camp are not sufficient and the available ones are always overcrowded. “We just spread our wrappers on the floor to sleep,” she said. 

Despite the difficulties in the camp, the displaced persons persevered, hoping peace would eventually be restored. However, another wave of terror erupted on February 8, when terrorists attacked Chanchanji district and raided several villages. Locals said the terrorists returned the next day and unleashed more havoc.   

No terror group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. 

Avangwa Emmanuel, a resident of Tse-Bawa, told HumAngle that his father and three uncles were killed during the February incident. He noted that many others were killed in their homes that day. “They [terrorists] were heavily armed,” he added.

Avangwa and others from his village are currently taking shelter at a secondary school that has been converted into a temporary camp.

“No water, no food, nothing. Everybody is just struggling. Our major problem here is food. Also, what we need is peace. If there’s anything the government can do to restore peace so that we can return to our homes and continue our work, that is all,” he said.

Amadu, another community in Chanchanji District, was among the hardest hit. Terkuma Moses, the community leader, said scores were killed, and locals have fled to displacement camps. HumAngle could not independently confirm the figures as the police authorities did not respond to enquiries. 

“The attackers come here daily. We’ve been living in perpetual fear. There have been many rape occurrences during these attacks,” Abraham Nyingi, a resident of Amadu, told HumAngle. He noted that no government official had been dispatched to assess the displaced persons’ situation. “We are at the mercy of humanitarian organisations. If the government really wants to help us, we would be very grateful,” he said.

“The environmental conditions are very harsh. Our children can’t go to school. We lack medical care,” he lamented.

In recent months, the worsening hunger has compelled some displaced persons to return to their communities. Tabitha said that none of those who left made it back. “They got killed,” she said. “Their bodies were found in the bushes.” 

Life at a standstill

The school where Tabitha once worked has remained closed since the crisis began. She has lost not only her livelihood, but also her sense of independence, as she cannot return home or secure alternative work. She continues to fear for her elderly parents, who remain in the village. She sometimes reaches them by phone, and they tell her they are also experiencing food shortages, as their barns were burnt during the attacks.

Tabitha described the displacement as the worst experience of her lifetime. 

“We lack basic things like food and we buy water since the camp doesn’t have a water supply. The harmattan season is still here, and many of us are still sleeping outside because all the rooms are overcrowded,” Tabitha said. 

With the new arrivals following the February 8 attacks, she said the struggle for survival has intensified. 

“I can’t further my education now. I can’t do any business. I’m just stuck here,” said Veronica Iorchan, a 22-year-old resident of Demevaa. 

When the attacks began in September, she was in her final year at the Taraba State Polytechnic in Suntai. By the time she completed her studies in October, instead of returning home to a joyous celebration, Veronica was informed that her community was deserted. The rest of her family had moved to the Abaya IDP camp. 

“I came straight to the camp from school,” she said, adding that she lost two of her uncles in the attack.

While the camp provides them with accommodation and food, Veronica said they must fend for themselves when it comes to obtaining hygiene products and toiletries, such as sanitary pads. Even though she is determined to seek employment in the host community, she feels unsafe whenever she leaves the camp. She dreams of a time when she can return home and make plans for her future.

A cry for peace

Tabitha looks forward to a time when she can return to her community, re-unite with her parents, resume her job as a nanny, and supplement her income with farming. 

“That will only happen if there is peace,” she said. 

While Avangwa is still grappling with the loss of his father and three uncles, he says the hardship at the makeshift camp intensifies with each passing day. He noted that Tse-Bawa is an agrarian community, and the crisis, which has persisted for about five months, has severely disrupted farming activities, as locals can no longer access their farms. Several farmlands and barns were also set ablaze in the attacks.

“So if we can have peace, then we can go back to our places and settle. All we need is just peace and nothing more,” he said. 

Abraham calls on the government to urgently look into the crisis. “Our people do not really need much from the government,” he said. “Just secure us.”

Residents say the government’s lack of concern for their plight has been deeply shattering. Recently, religious leaders affiliated with the Catholic Church led a peaceful protest in Jalingo, the state capital, calling on the government to extend security interventions to the southern Taraba area, which includes Takum and Donga Local Government Areas.

“As a matter of urgency, adequate security personnel should be mobilised and deployed to the hinterlands, where this carnage is taking place unabated,” James Yaro, a priest and Vicar Pastoral of Taraba’s Catholic Diocese of Wukari, told journalists. 

“The government at all levels must be deliberate in ensuring security guarantees and bringing enablers and perpetrators of these dastardly acts, or heinous crimes against humanity, to justice through their immediate arrest and prosecution, irrespective of their ethnic, political, and religious affiliations.” He added that, “IDPs require immediate intervention by the government.”

HumAngle wrote to the Taraba State Ministry of Special Duties and Humanitarian Affairs for comments but received no response at the time of filing this report.

Hauwa Abdulkarim was inside her house when the violence began. 

As evening settled over Woro, a village in Kaiama Local Government Area (LGA) of Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, on Feb. 3, the terrorists descended on motorcycles like a sudden storm. What began as a seemingly ordinary evening quickly turned into chaos, with about 170 people killed, their homes set ablaze, celebrations interrupted, and families forced to flee.

“Most of the youths were at the field playing football [on a school field close to the house]. Then we saw people running back home with the news that kidnappers had entered the town,” Hauwa recounted. 

At first, she did not panic. The terrorists had sent word days earlier, a letter to the district head saying they were coming to “preach”. When the motorcycles rolled in, there was confusion and fear.

Then the shooting started. 

“Upon entering the village [around 5 p.m.], they started shooting at people,” she said. The football field emptied in seconds. Inside her house, Hauwa and her husband tried to gather their children, counting them quickly and realising some were still outside.

“We were thinking about some of our children who were outside and those that went to the football field. The shooting continued until 5 a.m., the next day,” Hauwa added. 

But the terror was not continuous. It came in waves.

“When it was time for the call to prayer, they suddenly stopped,” she recalled. “They made the call to prayer for Maghrib and called out people to pray.”

The silence was almost as frightening as the gunfire. After the prayer, the shooting resumed. “They did the same for the late-night prayer, stopping briefly to make the call to prayer and observe it. Afterwards, they resumed shooting through the night,” Hauwa told HumAngle.

Later that night, everything suddenly became quiet: the gunshots stopped. That was when the residents began to hear the call to come out and extinguish the blazing fires.

Many were confused and afraid, unsure whether to come out to help put out the flames, flee, or stay hidden. 

Hauwa and her husband came out with other residents, but they were ambushed. “We thought they had gone, so we came out with buckets to save our homes. That was when they opened fire again. It was a trap and my husband was almost killed in that encounter. He hid in a ditch, as I ran inside to stay with my children,” she recounted. 

By dawn, the village was scarred by destruction — dead bodies with gunshot wounds to the head and cuts to their necks, houses reduced to ashes, the district head’s residence consumed by fire, and families shaken by the night’s events. 

The alternating rhythm of violence and prayer created a chilling atmosphere that has left Hauwa to grapple with both physical loss and psychological trauma. She described the ordeal as a mix of terror and deception, designed to lure people into vulnerability. 

The attack on Woro and neighbouring Nuku communities has displaced at least 941 persons and exposed glaring intelligence failures, despite prior warnings, and the growing influence of terror groups operating from the Kainji Lake National Park axis. HumAngle met with some of the survivors in Wawa, a town in nearby Niger State. 

Ibrahim Ismail Dan’umar, a community leader in Wawa who serves as the coordinator of the displaced persons, told HumAngle that the community has been providing the families with relief materials and accommodation, as there is no designated camp for them. 

“On our records, we have people from Plateau, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger,” he noted. “We decided to organise a breakfast for them and announced that anyone offering shelter to the displaced should bring them to the gathering. On the first day, we had 381 people, even though we only projected for 200.”

“The next day, we distributed food items, and by the third day, the Emir of Borgu and representatives of Kaiama Local Government came with support, which we shared among them. Now, we have 941 displaced persons — adults and children — here in Wawa,” he explained.

Amnesty International, a global human rights organisation, described the killings as evidence of systemic neglect of rural communities. In a statement, the organisation condemned the attacks as “vicious” and criticised the Nigerian government for leaving rural communities at the mercy of rampaging terrorists.

Following the deadly attacks, the Nigerian military has formally launched a multi-agency offensive  in Kwara and Niger states, code-named ‘Operation Savannah Shield’, designed to dismantle terrorist networks and restore security in the region. 

The initiative was flagged off on Thursday, Feb. 19 at Sobi Barracks in Ilorin by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, and the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. 

Unmasking those behind the terror

This attack is one of the deadliest this year.

In the weeks leading up to the Woro massacre, Sadiku’s faction of Boko Haram had already reached out to the community.  

According to the village head, Salihu Umar, a letter dated Jan. 8 — written in Hausa and bearing the signature of JAS (Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’adati wal-Jihad) — was delivered to him. The message requested a “private” meeting with local leaders for preaching and assured residents that no harm would come to them.  

Umar said he made copies of the letter and forwarded them to both the Kaiama Emirate and the Department of State Services (DSS) office in Kaiama. Despite this warning, no preventive measures were taken, raising questions about Nigerian security intelligence.

However, security sources revealed that the killings are part of a jihadist campaign commanded by Malam Sadiku, a notorious terrorist whose influence has steadily expanded across multiple parts of Nigeria’s North Central region. 

HumAngle has extensively documented how Sadiku, once closely aligned with Boko Haram founder Muhammad Yusuf and later Abubakar Shekau, has re-emerged at the forefront of a dangerous wave of insurgency. 

After a stint with the Darul Islam sect, he returned to Boko Haram with renewed zeal, positioning himself as one of Shekau’s most loyal comrades. Sadiku’s financial windfall from the infamous Kaduna train abduction gave him the means to expand his influence, strengthen his network, and spread Boko Haram’s radical ideology across Niger State and neighbouring states. 

With resources and reputation firmly behind him, Sadiku built a growing base of followers and fighters. Under his leadership, extremist teachings were not only revived but embedded into local communities, turning quiet rural villages into recruitment and indoctrination centres.

His trajectory, security analysts such as Yahuza Getso of Eagle Integrated Security note, reflects a long-term strategy of territorial control and ideological entrenchment, with this latest attack underscoring both the scale of his operations and the devastating impact on local communities. 

But he is not alone.

Malam Mahmuda, the leader of the Mahmudawa (an Ansaru faction), has also turned the Kainji Forest into a safe haven for his fighters. Despite previous arrests of their leaders, the group has replenished its ranks and rearmed its foot soldiers. 

According to Ahmad Salkida, HumAngle’s founder, who is one of the foremost experts on the protracted Boko Haram insurgency and the complex conflicts in the Lake Chad region, “The relocation of Sadiku and Umar Taraba, both veteran jihadist operatives, to the Kainji axis in 2024 marked a shift. Their presence injected technical expertise into a space previously dominated by loosely organised armed groups.”

He added that they are fragmented into smaller camps: some closer to the Benin border, acting as brokers linking criminal networks of jihadist actors. The Mahmudawa are said to facilitate training, arms movement, ransom negotiations, and sanctuary for fighters arriving from outside the region.

“Official claims regarding the arrest of their leader, Malam Mahmuda, remain unconfirmed in border communities, where continued attacks and coordinated leadership are still attributed to the group,” he noted. 

“If the Mahmudawa are brokers, the Lakurawa are enforcers. With an estimated 300 fighters, they have become one of the most active jihadist–terrorist hybrids affecting […] border communities. Operating from within and around Kainji Lake National Park, they routinely launch incursions into Bagudo and Suru LGAs, combining attacks on military targets with ideological messaging aimed at delegitimising the Nigerian state.”

Security sources and community accounts indicate that Sadiku’s group and Mahmudawa, linked to jihadist networks across West Africa, have long operated in the dense Kainji Lake National Park and Borgu Reserve, straddling Niger and Kwara states. According to the sources, this is an attempt to create another Sambisa: a hotbed for Boko Haram in the North East.

Local residents have repeatedly warned authorities about the presence of terrorist camps in the forest, but responses have been slow. Between September and December 2025, the Federal Government carried out aerial and ground operations in the area, yet the group remains influential. The forest’s vast terrain and porous borders have provided cover for training, recruitment, and staging raids. 

Getso believes that Sadiku’s Boko Haram has rebranded and reorganised remnants of Ansaru and JNIM cells, consolidating them into a formidable force in North Central Nigeria. He also revealed that the Woro massacre underscores the growing threat posed by Sadiku’s network. 

“Nigeria’s current counter-terrorism strategy is insufficient. There is a need for a comprehensive review of military doctrine and intelligence operations,” Getso noted.

A dream on hold

At just 22 years old, Ibrahim Ishaq Woro had recently graduated from the School of Health in New Bussa, Niger State. He had only returned home to Woro a year earlier and was in the process of applying for jobs when the attack shattered his community.  

On the day of the assault, Ibrahim was sitting at a tea stall when he spotted the terrorists approaching. Recognising them from a previous encounter, he fled — but minutes later, gunfire erupted across the village. 

That day was meant to be joyous, with three weddings taking place, including his cousin’s. Instead, the celebrations turned into a massacre. 

“The wedding was taking place at our house. Yahaya, my cousin, was killed. His wife and children were abducted and taken to the forest,” Ibrahim recalled.  

Like Hauwa, who described how false calls to prayer lured residents into ambushes, Ibrahim witnessed the same deception. “Those who hid inside were warned: ‘you either come outside or burn in your houses.’ Those who opened their doors out of fear were kidnapped,” he said.  

By dawn, Ibrahim returned to find the bodies of women, children, and men scattered across the community. His closest friends — Zakari, Habib, and Shamsudeen — were among the dead. 

His mother, three siblings, and several family members who came for the wedding were taken captive. “Personally, we lost 20 people from my extended family and about 50 are still missing,” he said quietly, while looking away. 

Like Hauwa, Ibrahim and other survivors fled Woro to Wawa and other neighbouring communities, with their belongings in wheelbarrows and on their heads, trekking for about 42 kilometres with swollen feet in search of refuge.   

Now displaced, their only plea is for the government to secure the release of kidnapped women and children, and restore safety so families can return home. 

“For those we have lost, we can only pray for eternal peace. But we need our loved ones back. That is why we are afraid to even return home,” Ibrahim said.

Officials in Wawa town, speaking on condition of anonymity, said discussions are ongoing with the district head to facilitate the safe return of displaced residents. The move, they explained, would allow survivors to access federal and state-level interventions more effectively once back home.