Transnational Banditry In West Africa
BY INWALOMHE DONALD
TRANSNATIONAL banditry in West Africa refers to highly organized, economically motivated criminal networks operating across Nigeria’s borders with Niger, Chad, Mali, Cameroon, and Benin. These heavily armed groups primarily terrorize Nigeria’s North-West and North-Central regions through kidnapping for ransom, arms smuggling, cattle rustling, and systematic extortion of rural communities. There is nobody today at Nigeria’s border that is preventing armed groups from entering Nigeria. Millions of people have been displaced as a result of armed attacks by bandits in West Africa. Internally displaced people camps have been created across Nigeria.
Armed groups, bandits, and foreign jihadist elements from Mali, the Niger Republic, Chad, Sudan, and Cameroon frequently operate in Nigeria. The crisis is heavily driven by deeply porous borders and the transnational movement of militant networks. Terrorist factions and bandits from the Sahel—most notably elements linked to Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) and the relatively new Lakurawa group—have infiltrated northern Nigeria. These groups utilize ungoverned spaces and have been known to cross international boundaries, merging with local bandits and kidnapping syndicates. The tri-border areas of Nigeria are heavily affected by cross-border militants. Factions such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) operate across Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, making the entire basin a hotspot for violence. Many large-scale bandit cells operating in Nigeria’s northwest are composed of individuals from neighboring West African and Central African nations. For example, notorious militia leaders have commanded networks stretching as far as Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic. Economic Community of West Africa States must rise to eliminate transnational banditry in West Africa.
External recruitment of bandits and foreign armed groups into Nigeria is highly active, primarily fueled by the country’s porous 1,287-kilometer northern border, the broader security vacuum in the Sahel region, and lucrative transnational criminal networks. Recently, about five men were arrested in Lagos who are nationals from Niger Republic, Chad and Sudan. Few days ago the court in Sokoto sentenced a Nigerien to death for banditry and killing of innocent Nigerians.
While traditional domestic “banditry” in Nigeria’s Northwest and North-Central regions initially emerged from localized farmer-herder conflicts, it has dramatically evolved into a transnational crisis. Foreign fighters and jihadist networks are increasingly embedding themselves within, or recruiting directly from, Nigerian criminals.
Foreign bandits have increasingly infiltrated Nigeria, taking advantage of the country’s highly porous international borders to exacerbate the country’s ongoing security crisis. While the roots of armed banditry are primarily local, security experts, local officials, and communities state that a significant transnational wave of armed mercenaries and criminal networks from neighboring Sahelian countries (such as Mali, Chad, Sudan and Niger) has actively entered the country. The dynamics of foreign banditry in Nigeria involve several critical layers.
The Epicenter: The North-West zone, particularly Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, and Kebbi states, remains the hardest hit by these non-state armed groups.
The Spread: While historically concentrated in rural areas, these networks have expanded into highways (e.g., the Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan expressways) and urban centers to abduct prominent figures and travelers.
Transborder Movements: Weak border management and porous frontiers in the Sahel allow these groups to evade security forces, cross into neighboring West African countries to hide, and smuggle small arms and light weapons into Nigeria.
Banditry is described as a multifaceted crime encompassing acts such as armed robbery, murder, rape, kidnapping, cattle rustling, armed attacks, and raids targeting local communities. Perpetrated by groups defined as ‘highly fragmented’ and diverse in terms of their capabilities and degree of organisation, violence arising from banditry has increasingly become both more widespread and lethal, spreading from the North-West to other regions and affecting remote villages, towns, and cities.
During 2024, Nigeria Watch reported an increase in fatalities arising from rural banditry, cattle rustling and related government operations (1 452 deaths, compared to 892 in 2023), with most fatalities recorded in Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna In mid-2025, a further ‘significant surge’ in violence linked to banditry was reported, particularly across Niger, Katsina and Zamfara.
Early 2024 saw a rise in kidnappings for ransom across the country including hundreds abductions in various parts of northern Nigeria in February and March 2024 According to a February 2024 study by the Nigeria-based polling agency NOIPolls, the prevalence of kidnapping was highest in the North-Central zone, followed by the South-West, North-West, and South-East. According to the consulting firm Nextier, 2 452 individuals were kidnapped during the year 2024, a 31 % rise over the 1 878 victims of kidnapping recorded in 2023. At the same time, abduction-related fatalities dropped in 2024, according to Nigeria Watch (425 deaths, compared to 536 recorded in 2023). 2025 saw continued large-scale kidnappings and killings of abductees with kidnappings remaining a ‘pervasive threat’ across multiple states as of mid-2025 Urban and rural areas, along with national highways, have emerged as vulnerable locations where kidnappings occur. Victims of kidnappings included villagers travellers, political figures large numbers of schoolchildren and IDPs businesspeople.
Inwalomhe Donald writes via inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com
