The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organisational Crime, GI-TOC and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, ACLED, have offered valuable recommendations on how to tackle the decades-long armed banditry and their source of income in north-western Nigeria.
The recommendations are contained in the second series of reports by the GI-TOC and ACLED titled: Non-state armed groups and illicit economies in West Africa.’ Armed bandits in Nigeria.
The report contained the financial and resource streams, hierarchy, recruitment process, and evolution of the terrorist group, among others.
The report, authored by Kingsley Madueke, Olajumoke Ayandele, Lawan Danjuma Adamu, and Lucia Bird, explores the dynamics of armed banditry in North West Nigeria with a bid to unravel their evolution, structure, and the illicit economies that the groups engage in for financing and resourcing, as well as their interactions with local communities and other non-state armed groups.
“Focusing on Nigeria’s North West region, this report explores the internal dynamics of armed bandit groups as well as the ecosystem and landscapes within which they operate, identifying potential entry points for interventions,” the authors said.
According to the report, the bandits generate revenue and resources through artisanal gold mining, cattle rustling, revenue generation on roads, taxation of farmers, seizing of farm lands, and forced labour.
“Armed bandits draw rents from various licit and illicit economies. In Kaduna and Zamfara, armed bandits generate revenue streams from five main sources: cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom, artisanal gold mining, extracting rents from road users—either as extortion or in the provision of transport services—and taxation of farmers, seizing of farms, and forced labour.
“Though armed bandits are opportunistic in their involvement in different illicit economies, certain bandit leaders are associated with specific illicit activities.
“For example, in Birnin Gwari, Dogo Gide is associated with illicit gold mining, cattle rustling, and kidnapping for ransom. In the same region, Yellow Janbros is only associated with the last two illicit activities.
“In recent years, armed bandits have flexibly moved between sources of financing and between three types of engagement with illicit economies: targeted attacks and robberies directed at the supply chain; imposition of levies on market participants; and the assumption of control over parts or the entirety of the supply chain of specific commodities such as artisanal gold or cattle.
“Further, although we do not explore bandit arms supplies in depth, there is an identifiable trend of larger armed bandit groups stockpiling arms and leasing these to smaller groups depth.
“There is an identifiable trend of larger armed bandit groups stockpiling arms and leasing these to smaller groups for their operations. Payment for these leased weapons is in the form of cash or rustled cattle,” the report said.
Highlighting the ecosystem of the armed groups in the Northwest region, the report said, “the banditry landscape in the region is highly fragmented, with an estimated 80 to 120 distinct bandit gangs operating under different leaders.
“A vigilante who participated in operations against armed bandits in Wonaka community in Maru described the decentralised character of armed bandits: ‘[The groups] … are conducting their operations independently. … there are about 20 to 30 armed groups in this area.
“We fought with many of them, we know their location, hideout, and houses. They can be differentiated by their group’s members.
“While the exact number of armed bandits is not known, estimates indicate that there are between 20, 000 and 30, 000 armed bandits operating across Nigeria’s North West region and some parts of the North Central belt.
“Almost one-third of armed bandits are estimated to be in Zamfara State, and several thousand in Kaduna.
“The larger armed bandit groups typically have multiple bases.
In its recommendations on how to tackle the menace, the report urged the authorities to: “disrupt communication and collaboration between bandit groups, prevent extortion during planting and harvesting seasons, tackle the different licit and illicit economies that bandits draw rent from simultaneously.
“Community resilience responses, providing alternative means of livelihoods to vulnerable communities and individuals, and tackling informants.”
Other recommendations include, “intensifying intelligence gathering through collaborative approaches with local communities, formalising the artisanal gold mining sector, and entrenching a system of accountability for self-defence groups.
“Recognise the role of informants in sustaining armed banditry and implement awareness programmes and revenue-generating projects to dissuade vulnerable groups from becoming informants.
“Simultaneously, dismantle existing informant networks through effective intelligence gathering and targeted policing.
“Disrupting recruitment of informants and the sustained support of informants to bandit groups should not be solely premised on law enforcement interventions, but on broader community resilience programming such as awareness raising around the harms of informants and targeting vulnerable groups with alternative livelihoods,” the report added.
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