Sokoto: In northern Nigeria, some communities have started paying bandit groups to secure a semblance of peace, a strategy that analysts warn could jeopardize the nation’s integrity. Along the Sokoto-Zamfara state line, near the Nigeria-Niger border, villages like Sabon Birni and Isa have been deserted. To avoid similar outcomes, other villages are attempting to negotiate peace deals with local bandit groups following years of unsuccessful efforts by the Nigerian government to eradicate armed non-state actors from terrorizing rural communities in the northern states of Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina.
According to Deutsche Welle, villagers have recounted harrowing tales of family members being abducted and killed. Their livelihoods, primarily farming sorghum, millet, and livestock, have been severely disrupted, leading to a growing food shortage as farms are abandoned or harvests looted. The northern region of Nigeria, historically the nation’s agricultural heartland, can no longer produce sufficient food.
Farmers wishing to return to their fields face the threat of abductions or are forced to pay taxes imposed by these violent groups. Bandit territories often overlap, meaning peace deals with one group do not guarantee safety from another. Recent attacks in Zamfara State’s Sabongarin Damri resulted in 11 deaths and at least 70 kidnappings, including women and children.
Local community members, like Suraju Mohammed, express support for peace deals in hopes of ending the violence. “We want the killings to stop and live peacefully,” Mohammed stated.
Despite the need for peace, analysts and international observers highlight that parts of Nigeria are no longer under governmental control, posing severe national security implications. Angalapu, speaking to DW, noted the emergence of “parallel governance,” where negotiations with violent gangs inadvertently legitimize them, complicating efforts to curtail their recruitment.
On a local level, communities are left with little choice but to engage in these peace agreements as a survival tactic. “It’s not as though they want these peace agreements. It’s an act of survival,” Angalapu explained, calling for strengthened state capacity to protect these communities.
However, for some, like Aisha Tukur from Zamfara State, making peace with the bandits is not an option. “They should be prosecuted. They are heartless. They don’t listen to our pleas,” Tukur asserted.
Efforts by local state governments to combat the violent non-state actors through mediation, de-radicalization campaigns, and military force have not yielded lasting stability. Umaimah Abubakar, now living in an internally displaced people’s camp, shared her experience of recurring bandit raids despite ransom payments by the government.
The unrest, which originated from herder-farmer clashes over land and resources, has evolved into a broader conflict fueled by arms trafficking. Cooperation between criminal gangs and jihadists has intensified attacks, with bandits reportedly killing more civilians than jihadists from 2018 to 2023.