At least 87 people, most of them women, were abducted in two separate attacks carried out within 48 hours in Niger and Zamfara states, the latest mass kidnappings to hit northern Nigeria.
Two attacks, less than two days apart
The first raid took place on Saturday in the Mariga area of Niger state. Gunmen stormed farmland while residents were harvesting groundnuts. At least 47 farmers, many of them women, were seized, according to a local source and a security report prepared for humanitarian organisations.
The attackers reportedly arrived on roughly 50 motorcycles before splitting into several directions. Local accounts suggest the captives may be held in the Ma’undu forest. No ransom demand had been delivered to the families at the time the information was gathered.
Second assault targets Zamfara villages
The following day, Sunday, a second attack struck neighbouring Zamfara state. Forty women were reportedly taken in Yargada, in the Gusau district, according to a security report prepared for the United Nations. Nearby villages, including Yargada, Maikogo and Magama Mairake, were also attacked. Houses and vehicles were set on fire.
The true toll may be higher. Residents say more than 50 women and children were abducted across several villages. Those figures are difficult to verify independently because the affected areas are remote and insecure.
Bandits: a threat separate from jihadist groups
The attacks are blamed on armed gangs known locally as “bandits”. They are distinct from jihadist organisations such as Boko Haram or the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), although the lines between organised crime, banditry and jihadist insurgency can sometimes blur.
In north-west and central Nigeria, these groups have for years carried out kidnappings for ransom, cattle theft and raids on villages. They use vast forest zones as hideouts and bases of operation. Authorities struggle to control these rural territories, which often lie far from major urban centres.
In Zamfara state, residents say Sunday’s attacks may have been reprisals for the killing of several gang members by local militias. That account comes from local testimony and has not been independently established.
Kidnapping as a criminal economy
Beyond the violence, abductions have become a real source of income for armed groups. According to SBM Intelligence data, around 7.78 billion naira, or roughly 5.8 million dollars, was paid in ransoms between July 2025 and June 2026. That sum is more than three times the amount recorded in the previous period.
The same report estimates that 7,825 people were abducted during that period, a 66 per cent rise in one year. These figures give a sense of the scale of the phenomenon, even if they are compiled from different sources and do not necessarily amount to an exhaustive count.
The situation is all the more worrying because abductions do not only affect farmers or travellers. Schoolchildren, families and entire village communities are regularly targeted. In May 2026, more than 80 children went missing after attacks on schools in Borno and Oyo states.
Government steps up military operations
In response, the government of President Bola Tinubu says it has strengthened its fight against terrorist groups, bandits and kidnapping networks.
The Nigerian army is now running several operations simultaneously on different fronts. In the north-east, Operation Hadin Kai is mainly dedicated to fighting Boko Haram and ISWAP. In the north-west, Operation FANSAN YAMMA targets the armed groups responsible for many attacks and abductions in states such as Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto. Other operations are under way in the centre of the country.
Authorities highlight a strategy combining ground operations, air strikes, intelligence, arrests and rescue missions. According to the federal ministry of information, Nigerian forces have stepped up operations against bandit and kidnapper networks in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Niger, Kaduna and several other regions.
Army figures reflect the scale of the offensive. For July and August 2026, defence headquarters says 7,062 operations were conducted nationwide. The army says it neutralised 1,487 terrorists and insurgents, arrested 354 suspects and freed 777 kidnapped people. It also claims to have recovered nearly a thousand firearms. These figures come from the military authorities and not all of them can be independently verified.
In the north-west, the army announced in late September the rescue of 14 kidnapped people during an operation in Kaduna and Katsina states. Authorities also say they recovered weapons and intercepted suspected members of terrorist networks.
Results that have yet to stop the kidnappings
Despite these operations, the growing number of abductions shows the problem remains deeply rooted. Days before the latest attacks, residents of Niger state protested to demand the release of hundreds of people seized in coordinated attacks in August. Local estimates put the number of captives at nearly 700, a figure the authorities had not confirmed.
The government therefore faces a double challenge: weakening the armed groups while preventing them from regrouping in hard-to-reach rural areas. Security forces must also target the logistical networks, arms traffickers and financial channels that allow criminal groups to fund their operations.
The latest kidnappings in Niger and Zamfara states are a reminder of a persistent reality: military pressure produces isolated results, including arrests and the release of hostages, but it has not yet ended the kidnapping economy.
For rural communities, the threat remains daily. Farming a field, going to market or crossing a forest area can still expose residents to abduction. And as long as armed groups retain the ability to move, hide and demand ransoms, security operations will need to be paired with a sustained effort in intelligence, community protection and territorial control.
The 87 abductions reported this weekend are therefore less an isolated episode than another signal of Nigeria’s difficulty in durably restoring security in parts of the north.
