Zamfara State: The Seat of Illegal Mining and Banditry in Nigeria

Illegal mining is today ascribed to fuelling armed conflicts such as banditry and terrorism in Nigeria. In affirmation, President Bola Tinubu reiterated the known fact during the 2024 African High-level Meeting on Counterterrorism that illegal mining is linked to terrorism financing. He linked the relentless financing network of terrorist organisations to illegal mining in various sites in the country. Illegal mining sites in Nigeria have attracted cutthroat attention from criminal groups and altered socio-economic activities in such locations, leading to armed fighting and instability. With the country losing about $9 billion annually to illegal mining, it agitates the minds as to where the proceeds of the illegal mining go to and why some states in Northern Nigeria with illicit high-scale mining activities are also the states with the highest amount of incidents of banditry, kidnapping and armed violence. These states are mainly Zamfara, Kaduna, Kastina, Niger and Plateau. Illegal mining has continued to sustain criminal networks in the affected communities as well as drive violent conflicts among local solid mineral-bearing and impacted communities. Also, in many instances, bandits have taken over the running of the illegal mining sites, forcing the locals to work for them.

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