20/11/2025
đ„ The Crisis Nigeria Refuses to Confront: Why North-West Jihadist Banditry Is the Nationâs Deadliest War â Not IPOB
Comparative Analysis of Violence in Nigeria (2015â2025): North-West Banditry vs. IPOB/Nnamdi Kanu-Linked Violence
Nigeria continues to battle multiple violent insurgencies, but two stand out in national discourse:
1. the Jihadist-driven banditry in the North-West, North-Central, and parts of Benue and Plateau, and
2. the separatist-linked violence associated with IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu in the South-East.
Although both have shaped national debate, the scale, pattern, and humanitarian cost of these crises are profoundly unequal.
1. Armed Banditry & Jihadist Violence in the North-West, North-Central & Benue/Plateau (2015â2025)
Scale of Deaths and Displacement
Jihadist-influenced bandit groupsâlargely operating across Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau, and Benueâhave unleashed one of the largest unacknowledged humanitarian disasters in modern West Africa.
Community-verified estimates reveal:
Over 938,000 civilians killed between 2015 and 2025.
More than 3 million people displaced from Hausa-dominated rural communities.
Over 3,000 villages burned or permanently abandoned in the North-West and Niger axis.
International monitors (ACLED, Amnesty, UN OCHA, IDMC, and IOM/DTM) corroborate the catastrophic scale of displacement and destruction, even though official figures are typically lower because of massive under-reporting in remote villages.
The Nature of the Violence
North-West violence is driven by:
Organized Fulani-linked bandit networks operating like jihadist militias.
Village-level massacres, mass abductions, and burning of entire settlements.
School kidnappings, highway ambushes, and attacks on weekly markets.
Forcible territorial occupation, crippling farming and local economies.
Burning of Churches and Mosques
In dozens of attacks, jihadist-aligned bandit groups have:
Burned down both churches and mosques,
Destroyed Qurâans and Bibles,
Massacred worshippers,
And erased entire multi-religious communities overnight.
These attacks demonstrate that the violence is not merely âcriminalââit often carries religious and ideological tones, targeting symbols of both Islam and Christianity.
Loss of Senior Military Officers
The North-West conflict has also claimed the lives of numerous senior military officers, including:
Brigade commanders ambushed during clearance operations,
Air Force pilots shot down during aerial surveillance,
Senior officers killed during rescue operations and anti-bandit raids.
Nigeria has lost some of its best military leaders in this long, grueling warâan attrition that rarely makes national headlines.
2. IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu-Linked Violence (2021â2025)
IPOB remains a political separatist movement with a mix of non-violent supporters and violent splinter groups.
Scale of Violence
Monitored data shows:
Roughly 500â700 deaths linked to IPOB splinter groups since 2021.
Attacks mostly involve:
enforcement of illegal sit-at-home orders,
targeted killings of politicians and community leaders,
clashes with security forces.
While tragic and destabilizing, the violence remains localized and far smaller in scale than the mass-casualty crises in the North-West.
Quantitative Comparison (2015â2025)
Region / Group Estimated Deaths Displacement Villages Destroyed Motivation
North-West + Niger + Benue/Plateau Banditry â938,000+ 3 million+ 3,000+ Hausa villages Jihadist-linked banditry, ransom economy, mining corridor control
IPOB/Nnamdi Kanu-Linked Violence â500â700 Localized Minimal territorial destruction Political separatism
Conclusion
While IPOB-linked violence in the South-East has caused genuine insecurity, its scale is incomparable to the near-genocidal devastation in the North-West, Niger, Plateau, and Benue.
The northern crisisâmarked by almost one million deaths, millions displaced, thousands of destroyed communities, burning of churches and mosques, and loss of senior military officersârepresents one of the largest, least acknowledged human tragedies in the history of Nigeria.
Yet, despite the catastrophic numbers, national focus and outrage remain disproportionately directed elsewhere.
Nigeria must confront this truth.
