The origins of the bandit conflict can be traced back to herder–farmer conflicts that plague Nigeria. Environmental decline and the scarcity of water and arable land led to communities competing viciously for those limited resources. Unemployment, large-scale poverty, and weak local government have allowed for a steady stream of desperate people turning to criminal activity to earn a living. Large forested areas allow for concealment and the formation of camps deep in the forest. Unequipped police and military personnel are unable to reach these areas.[25]
Escalation
Continued insecurity, desertification and possible jihadist influence have allowed for a rise in attacks to take place. Large-scale weapons smuggling has allowed criminal gangs access to heavy weapons, increasing the deadliness of attacks which has affected the lives and loss of property worth billions of dollars, and the presence of these groups has driven away foreign investment. Underequipped local and federal forces, coupled with the harsh terrain, make offensive actions into the forest dangerous and susceptible to ambushes and attacks. Continued government inability to effectively deal with the problem has allowed the insecurity to spread and grow in ferocity.[26]
Kidnapping
Bandits in Nigeria have been known to ride into villages on motorcycles to loot and kidnap the inhabitants, killing anyone who resists. Kidnapping is a very profitable venture in northwest Nigeria. Between 2011 and 2020, Nigerians paid at least 18 billion naira to free family members and friends.[5][27]
Arms trade
Illegal arms are prevalent in northwest Nigeria. Bandit gangs control gold mines and use the gold to purchase arms from internal and international arms dealers.[28] There are an estimated 60,000 illegal weapons in circulation in northwest Nigeria.[29][30] The border of northern Nigeria is undefended, with only 1,950 personnel to police the whole border, making it easy for smuggling across the border.[31]
Belligerents
Nigerian bandits inside their base, February 2021
In Zamfara state alone, there are (as of 2021) over 30,000 bandits and 100 camps.[32]
Ali Kachalla
Ali Kawaje, better known by his alias Ali Kachalla,[33] was a bandit leader in his early 30s who was born in a small town called Madada near Dansadau. Kachalla controlled a bandit group of about 200 in the Kuyambana Forest. His main base of operations consisted of several huts along the Goron Dutse River, about 25 km south of Dansadau. Kachalla's gang directly controls the villages of Dandalla, Madada and Gobirawa Kwacha, from where he launched attacks on Dansadau and other neighboring communities. Kachalla's gang is allied with Dogo Gide's nomadic gang.
Kachalla's gang has carried out numerous attacks, most notably the downing of a Nigerian Air ForceAlpha Jet on 18 July 2021[34] and the destruction of a Mowag Piranha armored personnel carrier in Dansadau on 23 July 2021.[35] Kachalla's gang has suffered defeats, most notably losing 30 men in a battle with an Ansaru cell.[36]
Kachalla was killed on 11 December 2023. Before his death, Kachalla and his fighters attacked a detachment of security operatives in Magorno, Munya. The air component of Nigeria's Operation Whirl Punch was notified shortly after, and its aircraft scrambled to protect troops under attack. Aircraft spotted Kachalla and his men withdraw from the area on a convoy of 11 motorcycles. The aircraft trailed them to their hideout near Kopa Hills, and airstrikes were authorized, resulting in the deaths of Kachalla and several of his men.[33]
Dogo Giɗe
Abubakar Abdullahi, known as Dogo Gide, is the leader of a bandit group near Dansadau. He is from Maru local government and is in his 40s, married with children. He is known for killing bandit leader Buharin Daji and 24 of Daji's gang members by luring Daji to a peace meeting. He also killed a rival bandit leader named Damina who had attacked villages under Gide's control.[37][38][39] Gide is believed to have formed criminal ties with Boko Haram in the last quarter of 2019.[40] He is also believed to have the financial capacity and connections to procure weapons.[41] He is believed to have masterminded many kidnapping raids, one of which involved the kidnapping of scores of students from the Federal Government College Yauri in Kebbi State in June.[40]
Kachalla Halilu Sububu Seno
Kachalla Halilu Sububu Seno is the leader of a Fulani bandit group. He commands over 1,000 bandits in the Sububu Forest across Zamfara State and has connections to bandit groups across the west African countries of Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and the Central African Republic. He signed a peace treaty with the city of Shinkafi but has shifted his activities elsewhere.[42][43] He is a leader of about 1000 bandits located in Zamfara State.[44] His men are known for launching attacks and kidnapping of villagers and travellers in Sabon Birni, Rabah and Isa Local Government in Sokoto State, their tentacles reaches as far as Katsina State.[44] Halilu has become one of Nigeria's most dreaded bandits, having built a formidable militia of young men and stockpiling weapons.[44] Two years ago, communities in Shinkafi made a peace deal with Halilu's gang to attain the relative peace they enjoy now.[44]
On 13 September the Nigerian Army has confirmed the death of Halilu Buzu and a “good number of his fighters” during a military operation in Mayanchi village, in the Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Government troops recovered two Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) guns and many automatic rifles and ammunitions. [45]
Kachalla Turji
Kachalla Turji, also known as Gudda Turji, is the leader of a bandit group that operates along Sokoto Road, raiding towns, villages and settlements in the area. On 17 July 2021, Kachalla Turji's main base was raided by security personnel, where they arrested his father. Kachalla Turji then attacked the villages of Kurya, Keta, Kware, Badarawa, Marisuwa and Maberaya, killing 42, abducting 150 and burning 338 houses.[46][47][48] He was originally from Shinkafi Local Government of Zamfara State.[49]
Dan Karami
Dan Karami is the leader of a bandit gang that operates around Safana, Dan Musa, and Batsari local government areas. Karami's group is responsible for kidnapping 300 students from a secondary boarding school. On 23 January 2021, Karami was injured during a clash with a rival group headed by Mani Na Saleh Mai Dan Doki over the control of guns, ammunition and stolen cattle. The clash took place at Illela village and killed 20 of Dan Karami's bandits and nine civilians.[50][51]
Adamu Aliero Yankuzo
Adamu Aliero Yankuzo, better known as Yankuzo, is the leader of a bandit group that operates in the forested regions of Katsina and Zamfara states. He controls a bandit group numbering about 2,000. Yankuzo is 45 years old and was born in Yankuzo village. He has at least one son. On 16 June 2020, Yankuzo was declared wanted by the Katsina State Police Command for five million Nigerian naira. Yankuzo's gang has carried out a number of attacks, including the killing 52 people in Kadisau village in revenge for the arrest of his son on 9 June 2020.[12] He was declared wanted after his gang members confessed to the kidnapping of innocent villagers, killing of women and rustling of more than hundreds of cattle.[52]
Jihadist groups
ISWAP and Boko Haram have both claimed to have carried out attacks in northwest Nigeria, and some bandit groups have claimed to have formed alliances with the jihadist groups.[53] In a phone call intercepted by American intelligence in October 2021, an unnamed jihadist group and a bandit group discussed kidnapping operations and negotiations between the groups.[54]
Boko Haram is also believed to have sent specialized personnel, including bomb makers and military advisors, as well as military equipment to the Kaduna state to train and equip their bandit groups' allies.[55][56]
Furthermore, a group dubbed "Lakurawa" is active in northern Nigeria. Initially organized as a vigiliante militia to fight against bandits, the group became increasingly radical as well as oppressive. By 2023, it had effectively become another bandit group as well as aligned itself with Islamism and possibly even the Islamic State.[1][57]
Ansaru resurgence
Ansaru, a jihadist group linked with al-Qaeda, is believed to have been operating in the Kaduna state. It is believed they enter Nigeria through the porosity of the Niger and Benin Republic border with Nigeria.[58] After going silent in 2013, Ansaru began attacking Nigerian military and police personnel and infrastructure,[59] including an ambush of a Nigerian military convoy on 15 January 2020.[60] Due to Nigeria having large ungoverned Forest by successive government most of these terrorist and bandit groups have turned some forests in the Northern region of Nigeria to their operational base.[58] In March 2020, the governor Kaduna State Governor Nasiro Ahmed El Rufa'i stated that there will be no negotiation or pardon for bandits and terrorist groups in the state.[58]
Bello Turji
Bello Turji Kachalla is the leader of a bandits and kidnappers gang that operates in the Zamfara and Sokoto states.[61] He is known to have imposed levies on many villages and appointed leaders in two of the eastern Sokoto Villages.[61] He is notorious and ruthless as shown by him refusing to accept ransom after he kidnapped the father of the Zamafara House of Assembly speaker which eventually led to the elderly man's unfortunate demise.[61] He was said to have little of Western education but vast in the Islamic Education and also had a good family background.[62] According to a Lecturer Dr. Murtala, Turji's group members are from influential family some of which includes Umaru Nagona, Mallam Ina Manara, Bello Kagara and many more.[62]
Refugees
At least 247,000 people have been displaced and 120 villages have been razed in continuing bandit activity in northwest Nigeria.[63][64] At least 77,000 of the displaced have been forced into Niger's Maradi Region, where cross-border raids and attacks continue. At least 11,320 refugees have been successfully relocated.[65]
Timeline
Map of Nigerian bandit conflict
Nigerian government operations
Operation Harbin Kunama
On 8 July 2016, president Muhammadu Buhari announced that the Nigerian military would launch a military operation code-named Operation Harbin Kunama. The operation was carried out by the 223 armored battalion of the 1 Mechanised Division[66][67] and targeted bandit groups in the Dansadau Forest. In the days before the announcement, convoys carried new military equipment into the Zamfara state, including tanks and armoured fighting vehicles.[68]
Operation Sharan Daji
In early 2016, Operation Sharan Daji was launched by the Nigerian military to combat bandits in the northwest. The operation was conducted by 31 Artillery Brigade and 2 Battalion of the first 1 Mechanised Division. By March 2016, 35 bandits were killed, 36 guns were seized, 6,009 cattle were recovered, 49 bandit camps were destroyed and 38 bandits were captured.[69] In the year 2019, the Nigerian Army confirmed the killing of four bandits under the Operation Sharan Daji.[70] During the operation the troops recovered three AK-47s, three dane guns and two G3 rifles, some AK 47 magazines and others.
Operation Accord
On 5 June 2020, the Nigerian military launched Operation Accord, which established a joint task force of vigilantes and troops of the 312 Artillery Regiment. An air and ground offensive was launched on the same day on which the operation was announced, killing more than 70 bandits.[71] The operation led to the destruction of multiple bandit camps, including a camp belonging to Ansaru.[72]
October 2023 airstrikes
On 13 October 2023, Nigerian fighter jets carried out airstrikes on a gathering of bandits in Zamfara State. At least 100 bandits were killed and over 200 were injured according to a military officer involved in the operation, though the exact number of casualties was not confirmed.[73]
On 3 December 2023, a drone strike was carried out by the Nigerian Armed Forces on Tudun Biri, Kaduna State. Targeting what they thought was a group of bandits, the army mistakenly hit a village, killing at least 88 civilians.
25 October, gunmen attacked a mosque in the village of Mazakuka in the Mashegu area of Niger State during Fajr prayers. They killed 17 worshippers and an imam and injured four other people.[75][76] The assailants, who were believed to belong to the Fulani ethnic group, fled after the shooting.[77][78]
26 March, a gang of 200 bandits targeted Kaduna International Airport. A security guard was killed but the military successfully managed to repel the bandits.[79][80]
28 March, Abuja–Kaduna train attack – a train heading from Abuja to Kaduna was attacked in Katari, Kaduna state, killing 60 passengers.
7 January, armed bandits abducted 32 people at a railway station in Edo State.[88]
4 February, at least 41 people were killed after bandits clashed with a vigilante group at a village in Katsina State.[89]
15 April, bandits attacked Runji in Kaduna State, killing 33 people. The bandits then set fire to the village, burning over 40 houses.[90]
3 June, bandits killed two people and abducted 30 in three communities in Kaduna State.[91]
5 June, 36 people were killed after bandits raided six villages across northern Nigeria.[92]
10 June, at least 120 bandits on motorcycles killed 55 people and kidnapped dozens in two villages in Niger State.[93]
25 July, bandits killed 34 people in the Zamfara State. Twenty-seven villagers were killed in the Maru local government area, and seven soldiers were ambushed and killed while attempting to aid the community.[94]
13 August, bandits ambushed Nigerian security forces, killing 23 soldiers and three civilian vigilantes. A helicopter rescuing people from the scene also crashed due to gunfire from bandits.[95]
15 August, 13 military personnel were killed after an encounter with bandits in Niger State. The soldiers also killed 50 bandits.[96]
10 October, suspected bandits killed the head of the Zazzaga village and kidnapped several others in adjoining communities in Niger State.[97]
5 November, bandits killed at least 20 people and abducted several others during a Maulud celebration in Katsina State.[98]
24 November, bandits raided four villages in Zamfara State, killing one person and kidnapping at least 150.[99]
