Experts urge Nigeria to tackle bandits’ finances

ADF STAFF

Bandits have been plaguing northern Nigeria for at least 25 years, terrorizing and robbing residents, recruiting new members and creating chronic insecurity in the region.

Experts from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organizational Crime (GI-TOC) and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) say Nigerian authorities should consider a non-military approach to bandits by targeting their finances. Bandits make money through crimes such as cattle rustling, kidnapping, extorting farmers and taking over artisanal gold mines.

“It is a subject that is least understood,” analyst Kingsley L. Madueke said of bandit financing during an online discussion on banditry sponsored by the GI-TOC. “It directly supports the resilience of armed banditry and also does a lot in terms of serving as a motivator for recruitment into armed banditry.”

According to some estimates, there are up to 120 gangs of bandits operating in Kaduna and Zamfara states. Experts believe the total number of bandits could be as high as 30,000, with a third of them in Zamfara state.

Armed bandits skillfully move between legal and illegal revenue streams to generate the cash they need to operate. From 2011 to 2019, their primary tactic was stealing livestock. When herders moved their livestock elsewhere, bandits turned to kidnapping for ransom. Kidnapping quickly became unviable as potential victims ran out of money or were killed for non-payment.

In recent years, bandits have shifted their attention to three other sources of income: the largely unregulated artisanal gold mining industry, exacting “taxes” from trucking companies that drive through the region and demanding that farmers pay to plant and harvest their fields.

“The transition is focused on revenue collection which requires less violence and more coordination with communities,” analyst Olajumoke Ayandele said during the GI-TOC discussion.

Although these new forms of terrorist financing are based on the threat of violence, physical violence is actually rare, Ayandele said.

The poor regulation of gold mining and the cash transactions are a magnet for bandits, who have moved from robbing miners to running mines.

“The (mining) industry offers armed bandits significant earning potential,” Madueke said.

Therefore, the focus on mining could play a major role in starving the bandits, he added.

Analysts have urged the Nigerian government to focus more government oversight on artisanal gold mining. In 2019, the government closed down mining in Zamfara in an attempt to disrupt bandits’ income.

“Rather than banning the mining sector, there is a need to promote and facilitate the formalization of artisanal gold mining,” Madueke said.

By registering miners and improving security at mining sites, the government could curb bandits’ income without making life harder for the people who work in the mines, analysts say.

Bandits have also gained control of supply lines in the region by taking over truck routes after commercial trucking companies refused to enter the bandit-infested area due to poor security, wrote analyst Maurice Ogbonnaya for ENACT, the organization that fights transnational organized crime.

While military intervention remains a key component of Nigeria’s anti-bandit strategy, greater investment in the economies of the North-West and North-Central regions could go a long way in breaking the grip of bandits on the area, the joint GI-TOC/ACLED study found.

If we did that, banditry would become less attractive to young men looking for a cause and to others who want to make money by informing bandits about the government’s counter-terrorism operations. Financial support for agriculture could also prevent people from turning to banditry.

“It is crucial to prioritize these vulnerable groups by offering them an alternative livelihood,” said Madueke.

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