Nigeria's north-west grapples with worsening banditry and kidnapping crisis

Fatima, a 55-year-old woman from Zamfara state in north-western Nigeria, describes a night raid on her village in which armed men on motorcycles set homes ablaze and shot residents who tried to flee. She says around 70 people, including her husband and six of his siblings, were killed in June when gunmen attacked the village of Bia Buki.

Fatima is among an estimated 800,000 people the UN says have been displaced in north-western Nigeria due to violence. Most attacks in the region are blamed not on Islamist militants but on armed gangs, locally called bandits, who travel by motorcycle, strike quickly and escape before security forces arrive. She now lives in a makeshift camp in the city of Gusau with her seven children, where food is scarce and conditions are difficult; some children sent out to collect firewood have been kidnapped.

A worsening pattern

Data from the conflict monitor Acled shows attacks in north-western Nigeria's bandit-affected areas rose 78% in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, while Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission recorded a doubling of kidnappings nationwide over the same period. In May, the violence spread to south-western Oyo state, where gunmen abducted 39 children and seven teachers from three schools; 44 hostages were freed after 56 days following a security operation.

Government and community response

President Bola Tinubu's government has increased the defence and security budget by 10% and approved the recruitment of 28,000 new soldiers. Thousands of residents have joined government-backed vigilante groups to help fill security gaps, though experts warn that arming civilians could create future control problems. Fatima says she wants to return home but fears her village has become a base for the gunmen who attacked it.