Armed groups have killed at least 160 people in central Nigeria over the weekend in a series of attacks on villages, according to media reports. Media outlets reported that bandit groups launched well-coordinated attacks that started in the night of Saturday and continued into Monday against at least 20 different communities in Plateau State, injuring more than 300 people.
Northwest and central Nigeria have been long terrorized by armed groups operating from hidden bases and raiding villages to loot and kidnap residents for ransom. Organized criminal groups known locally as bandits have carried out widespread killings, kidnappings, and looting across several states. These groups emerged following years of conflict between nomadic herdsmen and farming communities. Activities of these criminal groups have also caused massive displacement.
Nigerian authorities – on the state and federal level – have failed to protect their citizens from the violence. The rights group Amnesty International Nigeria condemned the killings in fresh attacks by gunmen on some communities of Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi.
“The Nigerian authorities are obliged under international human rights law, regional human rights treaties and Nigeria’s own constitution to protect the human rights of all people without discrimination — and that includes the right to life,” the human rights organization said.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, faces increasing violence from Islamic militants, largely in the northeast, and large-scale criminal banditry mainly focused on the northwest, communal violence between Christians and Muslims in the middle belt region, and competition over land and resources nationwide.
Non-state armed groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) continue to operate in the northeast and carry out attacks within and outside the region. In the northwest, bandit groups, which emerged following years of conflict between nomadic herders and farming communities, kidnap for ransom, pillage, kill, and maim people at will.
Fourteen years into the conflict, the humanitarian crisis in northeast Nigeria remains profound and widespread. In 2024, across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) states, over 7.9 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, facing extreme deprivation, and daily threats to their well-being. Some 3.5 million women, children, and men are internally displaced within Nigeria, most of them in the northeast.
Insecurity continues to restrict access to basic services, and both displaced people and vulnerable host communities are in need of emergency food assistance, safe drinking water, relief commodities, as well as health, nutrition, protection, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions. The majority of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeastern Nigeria reside in host communities and camps, straining local resources and exacerbating needs among displaced and host populations.
Ongoing conflicts, banditry, violence, climate change impacts, escalating inflation, and rising costs of both food and essential non-food commodities, drive food insecurity nationwide.
In 2024, Nigeria is expected to see about 26.5 million people grappling with high levels of food insecurity, according to the latest Cadre Harmonisé analysis on food insecurity. The projection for 2024 indicates a sharp rise from the 18.6 million people currently vulnerable to food insecurity from October to December 2023.
Approximately 9 million children are at risk of suffering from acute malnutrition or wasting. Of these, an alarming 2.6 million children could face Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and require critical nutrition treatment.