ADF STAFF
The Nigerian Air Force, working as part of Operation Hadarin Daji, killed Zamfara-based bandit leader Kachalla Halilu Sububu on September 12, avenging his deadly 2021 attack on a Katsina military base.
“In a decisive joint operation led by three personnel of the Nigerian Air Force [NAF] Special Forces, a notorious bandit, Halilu Sububu, and over 38 terrorists were neutralized during an engagement near Mayanchi on 12 September 2024,” Air Force Group Capt. Kabiru Ali said in a statement, as reported by Nigeria’s Punch newspaper. “The operation was part of an ongoing effort by NAF and ground forces to exploit intelligence and secure the area following contact with hostile elements.”
Authorities also seized three heavy machine guns, two rocket-propelled grenade tubes, five AK-47 rifles, 29 magazines and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
“This operation underscores the effectiveness and professionalism of the NAF Special Forces in leading critical missions in conjunction with other services aimed at neutralizing threats and maintaining national security,” Ali said.
Sububu’s death was just one victory amid a growing security threat. Criminal gangs have caused more deaths in Nigeria’s North West region since 2021 than have militant Islamist groups in the nation’s restive North East region in the same period, according to an October 21 paper by Kunle Adebajo and Hamza Ibrahim for the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
There are thought to be at least 30,000 bandits in more than two dozen major criminal groups and hundreds of other smaller operations in the region. The bandits have been active mainly in Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara states. Some violence also has flared in Jigawa, Kebbi, Niger and Sokoto states, and the Federal Capital Territory around Abuja.
The bandits are on pace to kill 3,980 people in 1,380 violent incidents in 2024, making it the worst year of insecurity for the North West region in recent history, Adebajo and Ibrahim wrote. The violence also has displaced about 700,000 people in the region, they wrote. Another estimate puts the total at 1.3 million.
“Motivated by the aim of controlling revenue flows, these violent criminal groups threaten communities through robberies and extortion along roads, kidnapping for ransom, cattle rustling, and exploitative agriculture and mining activities,” the article states. “These armed groups have abducted and killed an estimated 9,200 civilians in the region since 2019 when the criminal gang violence first started ramping up. In the process, they have destroyed hundreds of commercial, economic, and farming enterprises.”
Sububu began as a cattle rustler but had shifted to arms trafficking and kidnapping by 2019, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime reported in October. By 2022, he controlled more gold mines than any other bandit leader. A year after that, he was the most prolific arms supplier to other bandit kingpins.
The ramifications of Sububu’s death could be twofold, according to the Global Initiative. On one hand, his elimination could cause violence to surge as rivals scramble to wrest control of his group’s revenue stream. However, his death also could hinder operations among remaining gangs. “As a prominent arms supplier, Sububu’s removal may limit the bandits’ access to weapons, further weakening their capacity for attacks,” the Global Initiative said. “State forces could capitalize on this gain to launch more targeted operations.”
Nigerian authorities will have to ensure that intelligence from cooperating communities does not result in reprisals against citizens. Failing to do so will chip away at trust and make future operations more difficult, the Global Initiative said.
In a May article for the International Peace Institute Global Observatory, Oluwole Ojewale, Central Africa regional coordinator for the Institute for Security Studies, wrote that Nigeria must address several issues. “The starting point is to foster and encourage negotiated settlements between Fulani herder and Hausa farmer communities in the rural areas,” he wrote. Such groups have clashed for years over water and land access.
Strengthening border security, including through intelligence gathering and electronic surveillance and detection, could stifle the influx of weapons upon which bandits rely, Ojewale wrote. The government also should address socioeconomic needs to tamp down poverty and unemployment that drive young people toward crime. Remedies could include job programs; agriculture, education and infrastructure investments; and welfare payments to vulnerable households.
Lastly, government authorities should follow through on plans to loosen policies that root police power in the federal government. A more local, community-oriented policing model would be more effective. “Decentralized policing can create a localized and community-focused policing system that allows for input from the community on organizational, operational, and human resources,” he wrote.
