Nigeria: violence now nationwide

Violence that was once concentrated in Nigeria’s northeast now spans nearly every region, with insurgency, bandit raids, kidnappings, gang attacks, and communal killings recorded far beyond the original Boko Haram front. (acleddata.com) (reliefweb.int) In late 2014 and 2015, ACLED said Boko Haram violence was still concentrated mainly in Borno and the northeastern states of Adamawa, Gombe, and Yobe. By November 2025, the European Union Agency for Asylum said banditry had become “more deadly and widespread” than the long-dominant insurgency in parts of the country. (acleddata.com) (reliefweb.int) The map of threats is now layered by region. The northeast still faces Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province attacks; the northwest is dominated by bandit gangs and kidnappings; the north-central Middle Belt faces recurrent farmer-herder and militia violence; the southeast has separatist-linked attacks; and the south-south and south-west have seen rising gang and criminal violence. (acaps.org) (reliefweb.int) (hrw.org) That spread has pushed Nigeria’s security forces into multiple wars at once. The EU asylum agency said in November 2025 that the country’s military and police were “overstretched,” while Human Rights Watch said insecurity remained prevalent across Nigeria through 2025. (reliefweb.int) (hrw.org) The human toll keeps rising. Amnesty International said at least 10,217 people were killed in attacks in seven states during the first two years of President Bola Tinubu’s government, from May 29, 2023 to May 2025, including 6,896 in Benue and 2,630 in Plateau. (amnesty.org) Kidnapping has become one of the clearest signs of how far the crisis has spread. Human Rights Watch cited SBM Intelligence data showing 2,938 people were kidnapped in the northwest alone between July 2024 and June 2025, more than 60 percent of reported incidents nationwide, with Zamfara recording 1,203 abductions. (hrw.org) The violence is also moving into places once treated as secondary fronts. Amnesty said new armed groups emerged in Sokoto, Kebbi, and Kwara during Tinubu’s first two years, while ACAPS reported major school abductions in Kebbi and Niger in November 2025 and said 589 schools nationwide had already been closed because of insecurity. (amnesty.org) (acaps.org) Even the northeast, where the conflict began, is worsening again. ACAPS said security incidents in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe rose 27 percent in January to March 2026 from a year earlier, with about 700 people killed or injured and more than 12,000 displaced since January. (acaps.org) Officials say they are responding. Tinubu said in July 2025 that the armed forces had his full authority to confront terrorists, bandits, insurgents, and separatists, and his government later said it had eliminated more than 13,500 terrorists, though it also acknowledged that more had to be done. (punchng.com) (cfr.org) Critics say the operations have not restored safety and have sometimes brought new abuses. Human Rights Watch said Nigerian security forces were implicated in deadly airstrikes during counter-banditry operations, and Amnesty said hundreds of villages had been sacked while many communities remained without effective state protection. (hrw.org) (amnesty.org) Nigeria’s own Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution said in its June 2025 conflict watch that kidnapping was the most prevalent conflict nationwide, with cult and gang violence prominent in the south-south and bandit attacks concentrated in the northwest and north-central. The pattern is no longer one insurgency in one corner of the country; it is a national security crisis with different names in different states. (ipcr.gov.ng)