For north-west Nigeria, bandit groups don dey kidnap and kill, but some communities don find their own solution. Dayyabu Abba-Kurfi, wey dem nickname Doncaster for im football days for high school, score im most important goal for August last year. He broker peace pact between im neighbours for Kurfi, Katsina state, and bandit gangs wey dey terrorise communities.
For months now, we don experience relative calm, our people dey rebuild their livelihoods, the 60-year-old civil servant and local politician talk.
Since Nigeria gain independence from Britain for 1960, population boom and climate crisis don make old grazing routes shrink. Youth for nomadic Fulani communities, wey feel marginalised by majority Hausa ethnic group, form vigilante groups. Later, those groups turn to motorcycle-riding criminal gangs wey dem call bandits, wey dey run illegal mining and billion-naira kidnapping industry.
Because of their nomadic nature, many of them no get land ownership, Malik Samuel, Abuja-based senior researcher for Good Governance Africa, talk.
Between 2019 and 2025, as many as 15,000 kidnapping incidents record for Nigeria, according to SBM Intelligence. Most of them for north-west. For July 2024 and June 2025 alone, another SBM report say. Eleven of Katsina 34 local government areas find themselves for frontline of banditry attacks.
Villagers wey dem displace go towns where dem adjust to new, costlier lifestyles. For their abandoned farms, bandits lead cows to forage on young and mature crops. Across affected areas of Katsina, families eat dinner as early as 5pm and enter forest to hide before nightfall, fearing raids. To prevent mass slaughter of whole families, fathers flee with some children for one direction while mothers take others and bolt for opposite direction. For confusion, children sometimes forget for home or for bush, where dem risk snake bite.
For Kurfi, one family dare to stay back during raid. Bandits rape the mother while father hide under their matrimonial bed, afraid for im life.
Nigeria don struggle to contain bandit groups. Military operations often make gangs simply relocate to neighbouring areas. Where violence fail, government try financial incentives, making amnesty payments to militants wey ready to surrender weapons. Critics argue that these payouts signal to criminal elements say violence get high return on investment.
Desperate for survival, some communities bypass state to sign peace deals wey sometimes allow bandit factions to collect protection taxes for return to halt raids. According to elders for Kurfi, after one such deal for neighbouring LGA, a bandit leader dey keen to reach similar truce with Abba-Kurfi. Community members plead with state government to allow them negotiate directly with bandits.
The state government position na say e no support peace deals with criminals and instead rely on security operations, Abba-Kurfi talk.
Abba-Kurfi, third of 30 children of polygamous textile worker, husband to two wives, with 15 children and grandchildren, don long dey resolve fights for im household and workplace disputes for civil service. So when Katsina state authorities eventually approve to start talks, Abba-Kurfi nominate to lead team wey include district head, community elders, and clerics from Izala sect.
The bandits, numbering more than 80, send word say dem trust Abba-Kurfi to be mediator. Most of them grow up here before join gangs for bush and some of their parents even government officials, so we dey familiar faces with each other, he talk.
Firm conditions present to bandits: no amnesty payments and no guns allow inside communities. For return, bandits get free movement within community and their demands meet: access to markets and Islamic schools, and basic social amenities like potable water for themselves and for their cattle to boost milk production.
We want our children to be knowledgeable, a bandit called Bello talk just outside nearby goldmining town of Nahuta.
Villagers say mediators deal transparently with bandits, leading to mutual respect and level of trust. Less than one year on, life look like e don back to normal. Bandits return more than 70 cows and allow farmers to return to their farms. More than 1,000 abducted people free, and no deaths at bandit hands report for recent months.
They release without ransom, I swear with my holy Qur’an, Abba-Kurfi talk. For one instance where gang come from far to steal cows, bandits wey accept Kurfi deal confront them and help recover stolen cattle, one elder talk.
We now take off our clothes to sleep at night, Abubakar Gadawa, 46-year-old farmer and herder for Kurfi, talk.
Not every deal don stand test of time: for 3 February, six-month pact for Doma community for Katsina collapse when one gang slaughter 21 residents for door-to-door attack. For Sunday, bandits abduct dozens of villagers wey dem invite to meeting about potential peace negotiations. According to local police, 39 people seize during meeting for forest near Magamin Diddi village for Maradun municipality of north-west Zamfara state.
For Kurfi however, there dey cautious optimism. So far, bandit don keep to their word, but dem say state government no don fulfill im end of bargain. While dem no carry their weapons into public spaces, dem don refuse to surrender their guns, afraid of possible reprisals by unforgiving vigilantes or attacks from distant gangs. That don lead to concerns say deal fit fall apart.
From what I understand, the failure of previous deals occur because of lack of communication and unkept promises, Abba-Kurfi talk, wey don keep open line to bandits and their relatives.
Samuel, wey attend some peace deals last year, agree, saying previous attempts were government-led and shortsighted. The government dey more interested to procure peace than actually the process wey go lead to permanent peace, Samuel talk. The government would rather prefer to pay tens or hundreds of millions of naira to bandits for exchange of their weapons than fulfilling those promises. How much e cost to build a school?
