The Centre for Democracy and Development, (CDD), has disclosed that the North-Western part of the country is harbouring over 30,000 terrorists often referred to as bandits who terrorise the entire region.
In its February report, titled: ‘Northwest Nigerian Bandits Problem: Explaining the conflict drivers’, the CDD said these terrorists are responsible for the killing of over 12,000 people and the displacement of over a million homes in the region. The report added that the criminality had also forced over 1 million children out of school in the States of Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina and Kaduna.
The pro-democracy organisation, in the 42-page report, signed by its West Africa Director, Idayat Hassan, lamented that the killings in the North-West region had also extended to Niger State and some other states within the North-Central region.
According to the report, the unrest has ballooned into full war with terrorists boldly attacking security formations and public institutions.
“The bandits are a heterogeneous collection of militants. While estimates are tenuous at best, there are probably at least 100 bandit groups operating in the North-West constituting between 10,000 and 30,000 militants. They engage in illegal activity, are adaptable, and wield sophisticated weapons, possibly more than the Nigerian security agencies”, the report noted.
The report, however, identified poverty, environmental degradation, porous borders and a poor justice system as some of the factors aggravating the insurgency in the region.
“The firepower that bandits have been able to acquire allows them to overpower smaller security force outposts and police checkpoints, such that bandits enjoy significant freedom of movement in all but the larger urban areas of the North-West”, it stated.
The Centre, therefore, advised the federal government to make difficult trade-offs and a holistic review of the security architecture, as “any serious efforts to roll back the conflict in the North-West will require greater political will and unity from Nigerian leaders than they have heretofore demonstrated. Any solution to the banditry crisis will be contingent on security sector reform and improving trust between security agencies and local communities”, it further said.
“Any future peace agreement or amnesty involving the bandits and the state governments should be closely coordinated with the federal government and formally documented to avoid pitfalls,” the CDD recommended.
