Troops kill at least 95 'bandits' in northwest Nigeria

Armed gangs known as "bandits" have taken root across Nigeria's rural hinterlands amid poverty and government neglect. They raid, loot and burn villages, exact taxes, and conduct kidnappings for ransom.

On Tuesday, Nigerian air and ground troops "foiled an attempted bandit attack, launching air strikes and shootouts" in the northwestern state of Niger, according to the report, which was produced by a private conflict monitor.

It added that "at least 95 bandits" were killed in the clash, which occurred near the villages of Warari and Ragada in the Rijau local government area.

The Nigerian military put out a statement about the clash Wednesday, saying that forces "engaged terrorists in a firefight, neutralizing several."

One soldier was killed, it said.

Tuesday's attack follows a slew of battles where the Nigerian military -- which has in the past has been quick to publicise and sometimes exaggerate its gains -- has kept relatively mum on apparent victories where scores of bandits were killed.

An intelligence source told AFP the military was changing tack after realising publicising their gains was keeping jihadists and bandits abreast of their operations.

The army declined to comment.

Conflict spreading

Nigeria's myriad bandit gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, in unrest that evolved from clashes between herders and farmers over land and resources into a broader conflict across the sparsely governed countryside.

Since 2011, as arms trafficking increased and the wider Sahel fell into turmoil, organised armed gangs formed, with cattle rustling and kidnapping becoming huge moneymakers in the largely impoverished northwest.

Groups also levy taxes on farmers and artisanal miners.

Violence has spread in recent years from its heartland in the northwest -- where analysts say some gains have been made by the military recently -- into north-central Nigeria, where observers say the situation is getting worse.

Increasing cooperation between the criminal gangs, who are primarily motivated by financial gains, and jihadists -- who are waging a separate, 16-year-old-armed insurrection in the northeast -- has seen attacks worsen.

Despite recent gains in the northwest, the military remains overstretched. While improved cooperation between the army and air force has aided the fight, analysts say, airstrikes have also killed hundreds of civilians.

Between 2018 and 2023, there were more deaths from bandits than there were from jihadist groups, according to figures from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a US-based monitor.

Last week motorcycle-riding bandits rounded up a group of farmers working their fields outside Jangebe village in Zamfara state, killing nine and kidnapping around 15 others, local residents told AFP.

Earlier this month, Nigerian soldiers killed at least 150 bandits in an ambush in northwestern Kebbi state, a local official said.

AFP

US aid cuts see millions go hungry in Nigeria, as jihadists surge

Resurgent jihadist attacks, huge cuts in foreign aid and a spiralling cost of living: hunger is looming in northeastern Nigeria, where more than a million people face starvation.

Before insurgency upended daily life, Damboa was a regional farming hub. Today it stands on the frontline of survival.

Located around 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of Borno state capital Maiduguri, the town lies on the fringes of the Sambisa forest, a game reserve turned jihadist enclave.

While Nigeria‘s 16-year-old insurgency has slowed since violence peaked around 2015, attacks have picked up since the beginning of the year due to a myriad of factors that saw jihadist groups strengthen and security forces stretched thin.

Almata Modu, 25, joined thousands of others fleeing the countryside into town in May, after jihadists overran her village. Rations are already meagre – and set to run out as Western aid dries up.

“We are safe, but the food is not enough,” Modu says, wearing a purple hijab, approaching an aid distribution centre in a police station.

Aminata Adamu, 36, agrees. She fled her home a decade ago and receives monthly rations for four registered family members – even though the family has since grown to 11.

‘Lives will be lost’

The limited food will soon run out by the end of July as Western aid cuts – including President Donald Trump‘s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development – send humanitarian programmes into a tailspin.

“This is our last rice from USAID,” says Chi Lael, Nigeria spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, pointing at a stack of white bags at another distribution centre in Mafa, around 150 kilometres from Damboa.

There are five million “severely hungry” people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states – the three worst affected by the jihadist insurgency waged by Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

WFP has until now only been able to feed 1.3 million who now face starvation as food handouts run out. “There is no food left in the warehouses,” says Lael. “Lives will be lost.”

The timing couldn’t be worse. June to September is known as the “lean season”, the time between planting and harvest when families have little food reserves.

Normally, rural farmers would buy food – but amid mass inflation from an economic crisis, coupled with forced displacement, many “can’t afford much”, says Diana Japaridze, of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Flying into Damboa shows vast swathes of farmland, abandoned because of the violence. The IS-aligned ISWAP has become better organised.

Concurrently, the Niger-Nigeria counter-terrorism collaboration has been strained as the military is stretched thin by a separate banditry crisis and an economic crunch has stiffened rural grievances that such groups feed off, according to analysts.

A farmer was killed in his field just days ago, residents said.

Meanwhile, Damboa has the highest and most severe cases of malnutrition among children under five years in northeast Nigeria, said Kevin Akwawa, a doctor with the International Medical Corps.

150 nutrition centres shutting down

Fanna Abdulraman, 39, mother of eight, brought her six-month-old, severely malnourished twins to a nutrition centre.

She latched them to her breasts but, malnourished herself, she can’t produce milk.

Of the 500 nutrition centres that the WFP operates in northeast Nigeria, 150 are to be shut at the end of July due to shortage of funding. That leaves the lives of some 300,000 children at risk, according to WFP nutrition officer Dr John Ala.

Two imposing banners bearing the trademark blue-and-red USAID logo still hang on the front gate, where stocks will soon run out.

A sign of the insecurity in the area, everyone entering the centre is frisked with a handheld metal detector. Looming food shortages threaten to make matters worse.

“When you see food insecurity, poverty, the next thing… is more insecurity, because people will resort to very terrible coping mechanisms to survive,” Ala said.

Across the country a record nearly 31 million people face acute hunger, according to David Stevenson, WFP chief in Nigeria.

With WFP operations collapsing in northeast Nigeria, “this is no longer just a humanitarian crisis, it’s a growing threat to regional stability”, said Stevenson.

Fanna Mohammed, a 30-year-old mother of nine, was oblivious food aid and child nutrition treatment will soon end.

“I can’t imagine that we will live,” she said when she found out, an eight-month-old strapped on her back, a two-year-old shyly fidgeting next to her.

In a June-to-September outlook report, the WFP and Food and Agriculture Organization warn “critical levels of acute food insecurity are expected to deteriorate” as the conflict intensifies, economic hardships persist and floods are expected.

Despite the desperate need for more food, only a few farmers dare to venture out.

They tend their fields under the protection of armed militias, stationed a few kilometres apart along the Maiduguri-Mafa highway.

AFP

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Nigeria in talks about holding Formula 1 race in Africa

Nigeria are in talks with Formula 1 about the prospect of holding a grand prix in Africa.

Lewis Hamilton has said the sport cannot continue to “ignore” Africa as it explores new locations for future calendars, and Nigeria want to stage a race at a circuit in the capital Abuja.

F1 has not raced in Africa since the 1993 South African Grand Prix in Kyalami.

But a proposal by Opus Race Promotions has “early support” from the Nigerian government, according to a report by the Times.

Opus Race Promotions in April presented the concept of an F1 race in Nigeria and held talks with Shehu Dikko, the chairman of the National Sports Commission.

They were then officially appointed to negotiate with F1 and the FIA, the sport’s governing body, on behalf of the Nigerian government.

“We are exploring all possibilities to bring Formula 1 to Nigeria as soon as practicable - not just as a sporting event, but as a catalytic driver of tourism, infrastructure development, youth engagement, economy and indeed soft power for Nigeria,” said Dikko said. “This vision aligns with vision of our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali has been invited by the promoter to visit Abuja to review the project.

Rwanda and South Africa have previously expressed interest in hold a grand prix in Africa, but neither bid has progressed in recent months.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has said F1 should race in Africa.

Hamilton said last year: “We can't be adding races in other locations and continuing to ignore Africa, which the rest of the world just takes from. No one gives anything to Africa.”

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By Tashan Deniran-Alleyne, Evening Standard