Security situation in Nigeria: Bandits cooperate with Boko Haram

Northern Nigeria is witnessing organized criminal attacks by local armed groups calling themselves “bandits”, which have recently cooperated with Boko Haram, further complicating the security situation in the country.

The local bandits carry out organized operations against civilians in the villages, plundering the residents, killing some and kidnapping others in exchange for a ransom.

Highway operations

The bandits carried out armed operations throughout the country in the beginning of March, killing about 70 people and kidnapping nearly 80 others.

The violent operations carried out by the bandits have been recently increasing, at a time of increasing population growth and increasing the agricultural area, leaving less space for open grazing by the herds of Bedouin cattle.

This prompted outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari to condemn these operations in March, especially in Benue State, which is one of the states of the Middle Belt region in Nigeria, were the Muslim-majority north meets the Christian-majority south and competition for land use is particularly fierce, as areas between farmers and pastoralists overlap with ethnic and religious divisions.

Nigeria is one of the countries in the Lake Chad region that suffers from the bitterness of terrorism due to the spread of Boko Haram, insecurity in the region, rampant unemployment, persistent corruption and increasing economic stagnation in the country.

Bandits cooperate with Boko Haram

For her part, Nourhan Sharara, a researcher of African affairs, said that armed gangs appeared in Nigeria several years ago, including bandits and those kidnapping for ransom, terrorizing farmers and plundering livestock. This increased in the northwest regions, where remote villages are far from the hideouts of the gangs themselves, and these groups increased in strength after launching attacks on local government headquarters, larger communities and those closest to federal roads, especially as they gained strength due to the absence of a police and military system in these areas and the dependence of the local population on armed groups to confront the attacks, which could further exacerbate the crisis.

Sharara confirmed in a special statement to the Reference that the security situation in Nigeria represents a major challenge for the current president, as was the situation during the previous administration, which failed to deter Boko Haram in the eyes of the Nigerian people. The gangs came to make things worse, as the deterioration of the security situation and the spread of Boko Haram attacks with the increase in the power of bandits and kidnappers is a bad omen for the Nigerian people. The cooperation of these gangs with Boko Haram makes Nigeria a hotbed of terrorism and terrorist operations, which have multiplied over the past years amid escalations from both sides.

Sharara pointed out that despite the Nigerian army announcing operations against bandits, their danger still exists and is even increasing day by day. The war against Boko Haram with ISIS on Nigerian soil may threatens the risk of Boko Haram cooperating with armed gangs, which represents a nightmare for Nigeria and its security institutions, and it may destroy the aspirations of the Nigerian people for stability, whether security, economic or political.