On Tuesday evening, gunmen stormed into Woro and a neighbouring town, massacring about 200 people and leaving much of the community in ruins.
Locals allege the attackers are linked to ISIL (ISIS), and had attacked the Muslim-majority community days after it rejected their demands to preach in the town.
According to residents, the attackers barricaded the shop from the outside before setting it on fire, trapping those inside.
“They set them ablaze, … but we did them no wrong,” Tanko murmured, his voice breaking.
Three days after the attack, fires were still smouldering across central Woro, where much of the violence took place.
Many homes and shops have been reduced to rubble.
Twisted sheets of metal roofing and burned household items litter the streets, a grim reminder of the night the village was overrun.
The stench of charred flesh hung thick in the air, but Umaru Tanko barely seemed to notice. He keeps returning to the same spot – a small, burned-out shop in the centre of Woro in western Nigeria’s state of Kwara.
“Inside that shop are the corpses of my friend’s son and grandson,” he said, fighting back tears.
It was difficult to make out the bodies in the blackened shell of the shop.
Burned beyond recognition, the two men lay huddled together, as though trying to comfort one another in their final moments.
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