Why are kidnappings in Nigeria on the rise again?

Searches are under way in several Nigerian states following the abduction of hundreds of schoolchildren and displaced people in recent weeks. 

At least 400 people were taken from a displaced persons' camp by suspected Boko Haram fighters on 3 March, Amnesty International reported. Days later, armed "bandits" on motorbikes arrived at a primary school in Kuriga, northwest Nigeria, and "herded" around 300 students from the grounds, said Nigeria's Premium Times. A further 15 pupils were kidnapped from a boarding school in the northwestern state of Sokoto. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

The country is "once more being rocked by mass abductions", said the BBC. More than 3,600 people were kidnapped in Nigeria last year, "the most ever" recorded, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data figures cited by The Economist in January.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What did the commentators say? 

Last week's events "brought to the limelight and possibly a climax the tragic episodes of years-long reign of terror in the community", said Premium Times. "For nearly two years, men including young boys haven't been sleeping in the night in Kuriga," an unnamed resident told the news site. "We do patrols with our locally made guns and rechargeable torchlights till the dawn." 

The threat of abduction looms large across the country. In the northeast, "jihadists linked to Islamic State attack the army and villages", said The Economist. The northwest is "riddled with gangs that routinely kidnap for ransom. A decades-long conflict between mostly Muslim herders and largely Christian farmers rumbles on in the country's centre" and "separatist violence still smoulders in the south-east". 

There had been a "lull" in mass kidnappings in recent months, but now it is "déjà vu" as the 10th anniversary of the Chibok secondary school tragedy nears, said the BBC. Since the abduction of 200 pupils by Boko Haram in 2014, "criminal bandits" have "mastered the abduction game", said Premium Times.  

But unlike Boko Haram, those carrying out many of the recent attacks are not driven by a political or religious cause, said Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani in The Sunday Times. Their "primary motivation" is money. 

Authorities do not usually manage to apprehend kidnappers, but "on the rare occasions" when they do, "these criminals are often revealed to be ordinary people with families, jobs, or even university students", said Nwaubani. For some, kidnapping has become "a desperate means of survival". 

"In general, kidnap-for-ransom in Nigeria is a low-risk, high-reward business," said the BBC. It has become "a lucrative venture for people driven by economic desperation".

The country's turbulent economy "creates the conditions for kidnapping", William Linder, head of Africa-focused risk advisory firm 14 North, told the broadcaster. "Food prices have skyrocketed" and "the perception of corruption continues".

Security forces are working to pursue the attackers, but the Nigerian military "is spread thin" across "a multitude of crises", said Al Jazeera. "Local vigilante groups are not enough of a bulwark against the armed groups." 

What next?

The recent abductions "represent just a fragment of a broader and deeply troubling pattern", said Nwaubani. "Nearly everyone I know in Nigeria has a relative or friend who has been abducted." Families are "forced into dire financial straits" to save their loved ones. Many Nigerians fear they are "just a sitting duck". 

The country's "porous and insecure" borders add to its "insecurity", said the BBC. Forests in border regions have become "operational bases for the criminals". 

The West African country needs to "work with its neighbours'', Bulama Bukarti, senior conflict analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told the broadcaster. "Without transnational cooperation especially with Niger, Cameroon, Chad, including in the north-western part of Nigeria's border, these incidents will continue to repeat themselves." 

Though government spending on defence has risen, it has taken a cut in real terms against an inflation rate of 29%, said The Economist. Officials tend to "splurge on fancy weapons systems that fail to tackle the roots of the problem". Against this backdrop, these events call for a "swift re-evaluation of the subsisting national security strategies", said Nigerian daily newspaper Punch. 

Further measures such as "deploying security forces to vulnerable areas, increasing surveillance, and implementing checkpoints along known routes used by abductors can go a long way in checking the situation", Punch continued. President Bola Tinubu "must double down" and "demonstrate an iron resolve to end mass kidnappings once and for all". 

While security forces continue their searches, the communities rocked by these most recent abductions wait for news. "Combing the woodland expanses" for the missing children in Kuriga "could take weeks", said The Guardian. A local villager whose five grandchildren are among those missing said his hope for their safe return is fading.