Boko Haram terrorists invade Niger village

An armed group believed to be Boko Haram has overrun Pissa, a village in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State that has endured repeated attacks, killing an unknown number of residents and taking others hostage, including women and children.

Local sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the assault began in the early hours of Saturday, June 13, with the assailants burning down many homes. Based on WhatsApp audio messages from residents fleeing the area, the attackers number more than 100 and have warned that nearby villages, including Kabe and Sukumba, could be next.

In one recording, a man speaking from a hiding spot said the terrorists easily defeated the local vigilantes. He also expressed frustration that soldiers had not yet been sent to the area. The Niger State police command has not yet commented on the attack. Messages sent to its spokesperson, Wasiu Abiodun, went unanswered at the time this report was filed.

A local security operative in Wawa, a garrison town within the same local government, said reaching the affected villages by road would be extremely difficult. “The only bridge linking Wawa to the villages had been blown up by Boko Haram about two months ago,” he said, adding that only military aircraft “can come to the rescue.” But another villager told this newspaper that neither air nor ground forces had shown up.

They are still here, taking women and children. They are killing some and burning our houses,” the man said in a WhatsApp voice note. But no help has come. Our (military) aircrafts are useless. We have not seen them but later they will tell us lies that they killed all the terrorists,” he added.

A Boko Haram splinter group led by Mallam Sadiku has been trying to gain a foothold in the Kainji Lake National Park. Last year, the faction moved from its bases in Shiroro into the Kainji forest reserve, which links to Old Oyo National Park and another forest across the border in Benin Republic.

The group’s first major assault in the area came in November 2025, when it kidnapped more than 300 students from St Mary’s Catholic Church in Papiri, Niger State. A month later, it struck again in neighbouring Kasun Daji, killing mostly men and seizing women and children.

In February, the group attacked Woro in Kwara State, leaving dozens dead and abducting over 100 people, most of them women and children. In May, it took 39 pupils and seven teachers from three schools in Oyo State; none of them have been freed.

The faction rose to prominence after joining forces with bandits to execute the 2022 Kaduna train attack, in which numerous passengers were held for months before being released following ransom payments.