Banditry ravaging the North West and North Central geopolitical zones of the country has been described as the gravest security threat to the country.
A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross said bandits have laid siege to the North West region of the country.
The report titled, “The question of definition: Armed banditry in Nigeria’s North-West in the context of international humanitarian law” said banditry and terrorism have put the North East and North-West on the edge.
The report said while terrorists had killed about 350,000 people and displaced millions, the fatalities from the activities of the bandits at some point outweighed that of the Boko Haram terrorists.
The report partly read, “Nigeria’s two geopolitical regions at the edge of the Sahel are sites of two different ongoing conflicts that have developed and evolved independently.
“In the North-East, the decade-long fundamentalist insurgency led by Boko Haram and its spawns has caused around 350,000 deaths, displaced over three million residents, and destroyed public infrastructure in a region already blighted by poverty and poor socio-economic outcomes.
“In the North-West, groups of violent non-State actors, widely referred to as bandits, are laying siege to Nigeria’s most populated geopolitical zone, with distressing consequences, that at some point outweigh the fatalities from Boko Haram’s insurgency. In 2019, bandits were reportedly responsible for almost half of all violent deaths in Nigeria. “
The report added that banditry remained the greatest threat facing the country, adding that it was drifting the country into its worst humanitarian crisis in the last decades.
“In terms of its disruptive impact and intensity of violence, banditry is the gravest security threat that Nigeria currently faces, and it is driving her worst national humanitarian crisis in decades.
Undoubtedly, global attention in the last decade has been on Boko Haram and other Islamist fundamentalist groups in the Northeast, yet the impacts of banditry on local populations have been more devastating, and this is so for three reasons. With a population of 35.7 million people, the region is the most populous in Nigeria,” the report said.
A security expert, Oladele Fajana said the report was only stating the obvious, adding that with the vicious attacks carried out by the bandits, they are capable of causing havoc in the country.
He said, “I believe the report because we have a larger population in North West and North Central so there is no point doubting the humanitarian issue. The bandits of late have carried daring attacks, just look at how to attack communities killing and kidnapping about 50 in one operation. The report reminds us of what we already know but did not pay much attention to. Our security agencies must improve their intelligence gathering. If we had an effective intelligence in place many of these attacks would be foiled. “
Another security expert, Timothy Avele, said, “Boko Haram was concentrated in particular zones but banditry is spreading nationwide and it’s a big business. The government through the security agencies must double their efforts now before it’s too late. We are already out of time.”
