<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV<\/span><\/span> has condemned ongoing violence in Nigeria following attacks by Islamist extremists on a predominantly moderate Muslim community in Kwara State<\/span><\/span> that reportedly left up to 200 people dead.<\/p>\n The attacks, which also led to the destruction of large parts of the affected community, have heightened fears that violence is spreading across Nigeria, Africa\u2019s most populous country.<\/p>\n Speaking during the Angelus prayer on Sunday at St Peter\u2019s Square, Leo said he received the news of the attacks with sorrow.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is with sorrow and concern that I learned of the recent attacks against various communities in Nigeria leading to a heavy loss of life.<\/p>\n \u201cI offer my prayerful closeness to all the victims of violence and terrorism. I hope that the competent authorities will continue to work with determination to ensure the safety and protection of the life of every citizen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The attacks have drawn appeals from state governors to the federal government amid growing criticism of Nigeria\u2019s security response both locally and internationally.<\/p>\n Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara said the attack was likely a reprisal for counterterrorism operations in the area.<\/p>\n Governor AbdulRazaq said residents had previously provided intelligence to security agencies operating in the region.<\/p>\n The presidency said last week that President Bola Tinubu<\/span><\/span> had approved the deployment of an army battalion to Kaiama, the epicentre of the attacks, where security presence had been limited. The battalion is expected to comprise between 300 and 1,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n Security analysts say the attacks signal an expansion of insurgent activity into southern parts of Nigeria.<\/p>\n Kwara shares a long border with Benin Republic along a key international trade corridor.<\/p>\n The pope also marked the World Day of Prayer and Reflection Against Human Trafficking, observed on February 8.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pope Leo XIV has condemned ongoing violence in Nigeria following attacks by Islamist extremists on a predominantly moderate Muslim community in Kwara State that reportedly left up to 200 people dead. The attacks, which also led to the destruction of large parts of the affected community, have heightened fears that violence is spreading across Nigeria, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":241299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[3211,3212],"class_list":["post-241298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-killings-in-kwara","tag-pope-leo-xiv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/leo-lebanon-plane-768x512-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}