The insurgent groups with some prominent bandits declaring strategic allegiance to the terrorist groups or consenting to a close working relationship; sharing intelligence and logistics support among themselves. States worst hit by the intractable rural banditry are; Niger, Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi. The states share boundaries and are easily navigated through large swathes of unmanned forests.

There is strategic allegiance between boko haram and bandits. A large group of Boko Haram terrorists have moved out of their base in North-East Nigeria to join forces with criminal gangs and bandits in the North-West where they are engaged in weapons training and kidnapping, military sources told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Friday. There have been growing signs jihadists and bandit gangs are developing deeper ties where both stand to gain: Jihadists supply arms while profiting from criminal activity. North-West Nigeria has long been plagued by the bandit groups, but this year, attacks and kidnappings have surged as the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic feeds criminality.

Payment of ransom has become an issue of strategic cooperation between bandits and boko haram. Payment of ransom is strategic to boko haram and bandits because the bandits had been using parts of the ransom to equip and re-arm themselves and by implication, fuelling insecurity in the country. Payment of ransom is strategic to boko haram and bandits because we have seen that every time they get any payment, it leads to further escalation, because they re-equip and they re-arm and then they go back, because if you notice what happened from the kidnap at the College of forestry, in Kaduna, this was prior to the kidnap at the Baptist College and at Usman Polytechnic before they got the university children.

Frequent acts of violent crime have grown to form a major threat to Nigeria’s national security. These include instances of militancy, insurgency and banditry. Banditry includes cattle rustling, armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom. Kidnapping has remained the most virulent form of banditry in Nigeria. It has become the most pervasive and intractable violent crime in the country.

Most—not all—of these mass kidnappings appear to be purely mercenary. These kidnappings are different from Boko Haram attacks in the past decade where the goal was to kill those who were benefitting from Western education. In these recent instances, kidnappers are after ransom, and appear to try to keep their victims alive.

Since December, 2020 more than 1,000 Nigerian students and staff have been abducted and held for ransom by criminal gangs in the dense forests of the country’s remote northwest. These gangs, locally called bandits, have been operating in northwestern Nigeria for more than a decade, but when they were infiltrated by members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in December, the abductions and violence escalated. Well, for starters, “kidnap-for-ransom is the most lucrative industry in Nigeria today.

Bandits are now members of Boko Haram. The only avenue left for Boko Haram to raise funds now is banditry. Bandits are occupying Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, and Kaduna States to raise funds for Boko Haram. Boko Haram is using banditry to infiltrate all parts of Nigeria. Banditry represents the financial wing of Boko Haram to raise funds to finance terror activities. Bandits are terrorists who can raise funds for Boko Haram across Nigeria. Bandits have negotiated with many state governors in the northwest of Nigeria. President Buhari should treat bandits as terrorists. Bandits have participated in kidnappings where ransoms were collected to finance terrorism across Nigeria. Boko Haram has also been known to raise funds through the mass kidnapping of foreigners and civilians for ransom. Boko Haram has a specialized kidnapping task force led by bandits that set out to abduct school children, politicians, business people, foreigners, rulers, and civil servants with the intention of later trading them back for large sums of money or for the return of other Boko Haram militants. Nigeria’s North West is suffering deadly conflict involving many armed organisations which Boko Haram has used to infiltrate the region, including herder-allied groups, vigilantes, criminal gangs, and jihadists. The violence has killed many people since 2011 and displaced some people, some into neighbouring Niger. Despite several security operations and dialogue efforts, a durable peace remains elusive.

Frequent acts of violent crime have grown to form a major threat to Nigeria’s national security. These include instances of militancy, insurgency, and banditry. Banditry includes cattle rustling, armed robbery, and kidnapping for ransom. Kidnapping for ransom has remained the most virulent form of banditry in Nigeria. It has become the most pervasive and intractable violent crime in the country.

Insurgent groups; Jama’atu Ahlul Sunnah lid Da’awatu wal Jihad (JAS, better known as Boko Haram), Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fii Biladis Sudan (Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa, also known as Ansaru) are competing with one another in a mass membership drive among the ranks of bandits terrorising most of the North West and part of North Central states.

Boko Haram’s Islamic State-allied rivals have been consolidating their grip on the North-East after the reported death of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, this year, in a major shift in Nigeria’s 12-year insurgency. Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has been moving into Boko Haram’s territory, fighting Shekau loyalists, assimilating some or forcing others to surrender to the armed forces, security sources say.

Details of the Boko Haram fighters moving could be the latest sign of cooperation between jihadists and criminal armed groups in the northwest, who raid and loot villages and conduct mass abductions for ransom.

They are the masterminds behind some of the abductions in the northwest,” one of the military sources said. A Nigerian security agency communique earlier this month had warned that a Boko Haram commander and foot soldiers were moving across the country from their base in Borno State to Kaduna State and other North-West states.

Criminal gangs have targeted schools in a series of high-profile mass abductions of students and pupils for ransom. Attacks have also become more brazen. Last month armed criminals assaulted the country’s elite military college in Kaduna and kidnapped one officer while in June criminal gangs shot down an air force jet conducting operations on their camps.
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Inwalomhe Donald writes from Kaduna via [email protected]