Nigeria has killed more than 13,000 "terrorists" in the past year, President Bola Tinubu said Friday, adding that the death toll from the country's militant insurgency is down 81 percent since he took power in 2023.
"Over 13,000 terrorists have been neutralized in the past year," Tinubu said, without specifying if he meant in 2025 or in the previous 12 months. He also said that over "124,000 fighters and dependents have laid down their arms since 2023 through Operation Safe Corridor.”
Militants and "bandit" gangs specializing in kidnapping for ransom and cattle rustling terrorize communities in northern and central Nigeria, where they launch deadly raids and impose levies on farmers wishing to access their own fields.
Some farmers, after paying ransoms, have no money left to pay the "taxes" to access their land. Others flee, leaving behind uncultivated fields in a country where millions go hungry each day.
On Sunday, 39 elders of Magamin Didde, in Zamfara state, the epicenter of the country's banditry crisis, were kidnapped when they visited the camp of a gang kingpin to arrange a peace deal to allow the community to cultivate their farms, Sanusi Dosara, the political administrator of Maradun district, told AFP.
The bandits are demanding $92,000 to release the captives and allow the community to farm.
The violence has caught the attention of the International Monetary Fund, which warned Tuesday that "a deterioration in domestic security" could "aggravate poverty and food insecurity.”
In its annual report on Nigeria's economy, it recommended that the government "strengthen security to stop oil theft and protect farmers and herders.”
