Zamfara Leads Nigeria In Kidnap Incidents In One Year But Mounts Just Four Anti-Kidnap Operations –Report | Sahara Reporters

The report identified Zamfara as the epicentre of Nigeria’s shift toward mass abduction as the dominant kidnapping method, recording 92 mass abductions during the year, more than any other state nationally.

Zamfara State recorded nearly a quarter of all kidnap victims in Nigeria over the past year despite mounting only four anti-kidnap operations in the same period, according to a new report by SBM Intelligence, raising questions about the adequacy of the state’s security response to the country’s worst kidnapping crisis.

The report, titled The Capture of Nigeria’s Kidnap Economy, found that Zamfara recorded 236 kidnapping incidents and 1,921 victims between July 2025 and June 2026, representing 16.74% of all incidents and 24.55% of all victims nationwide, more than any other state.

“Zamfara leads the way on both the number of kidnapping incidents (236) and the total number of people kidnapped (1,921),” the report said. “These represent 16.74% and 24.55% of the total numbers, respectively.”

Despite recording the highest incident and victim counts in the country, Zamfara mounted only four anti-kidnap operations across the entire reporting year, a figure the report described as a “stark mismatch” between the scale of the crisis and the visible security response.

“By contrast, Zamfara, which leads the country in overall incidents, victims, and civilian deaths, recorded only four anti-kidnap operations all year,” the report said. “This stark mismatch points to a crisis that has overwhelmed the local security response, not an absence of effort. It also reflects the capability of the groups carrying out the kidnappings.”

The report also noted that Zamfara recorded 211 civilian deaths, the highest of any state alongside Sokoto, while its low operational tempo stood in sharp contrast to states such as Benue (26 operations), Katsina (25) and Edo (25), which recorded far more anti-kidnap activity despite lower victim counts.

The report identified Zamfara as the epicentre of Nigeria’s shift toward mass abduction as the dominant kidnapping method, recording 92 mass abductions during the year, more than any other state nationally.

“In Zamfara, 92 mass abductions produced 1,722 victims, more than any other state,” the report said, noting that mass abductions in the state also accounted for a disproportionate share of civilian deaths.

“These are also the deadliest events in the dataset: of the 370 civilians killed inside mass abductions, Sokoto accounts for 108, Zamfara 99, and Kaduna 57,” the report found.

SBM Intelligence contrasted Zamfara’s position with that of neighbouring Katsina State, which recorded a similar number of kidnapping incidents (187) but far fewer victims (559), a gap the report attributed to differences in state-backed security response.

“The most likely explanation is that, in Katsina, while community- and LGA-led peace deals with bandits have continued with mixed results, state-backed vigilante groups led by the Katsina State Community Security Watch Corps have been better at resisting kidnappers than the Zamfara Community Protection Guards,” the report said.

“These outfits are backed by regular security forces such as the police, the military, and sometimes the State Security Services.”

The report also pointed to the South-South geopolitical zone as a counter-example of a more assertive security posture, where a comparatively modest kidnap count was met with a far higher operational response.

“Two of these top states sit in the South-South, where 50 operations killed 38 kidnappers despite a comparatively modest overall kidnap count,” the report said. “This suggests that South-South police commands, hunters, and vigilante networks are more willing and able to go on the offensive than their counterparts in the North’s worst-hit theatres.”

The report attributed the scale of Zamfara’s crisis in part to terrain and the capacity of armed groups operating in the state’s vast rural areas, where banditry has “consolidated into something approaching governance.”

“Across the North, kidnapping is run by syndicated bandit and jihadist groups capable of fielding sizeable militias. In vast rural areas, these formations are strong enough to hold ground and govern in the state’s absence,” the report said. “This sparsely populated geography also thins out the security presence meant to cover it, making the area very difficult to police and anti-kidnapping operations very complex to execute.”

Victims abducted in the state, the report added, are frequently “herded into forest camps,” with some “put to work in the ventures the bandits themselves control, from farming to artisanal mining, so that the abduction becomes a source of labour as well as ransom.”