Nigeria’s Recent Deadly Attacks Point to Spreading Violence

Nigeria’s security crisis is moving southward toward the country’s commercial capital, with jihadists and armed gangs threatening parts of the West African nation as yet largely untouched by decades of roiling violence.

The gruesome murder of more than 160 people in a village in the central part of the country last week highlighted the fundamental shift in the nature and geography of the insecurity crisis facing Africa’s most-populous nation. The increased attacks come even as President Bola Tinubu declared a security emergency and the US deployed troops to the nation, after it conducted a series of strikes on Christmas Day.