Zamfara State recorded 236 kidnapping incidents involving 1,921 victims between July 2025 and June 2026, but security forces carried out only four anti-kidnap operations in the state during the period, according to a report by SBM Intelligence, a market and security intelligence gathering firm.
The figures placed Zamfara at the top of Nigeria’s kidnapping table, accounting for 16.74 per cent of the 1,411 kidnapping incidents and 24.55 per cent of the 7,825 victims recorded nationwide during the year under review.
The report, titled “The Capture of Nigeria’s Kidnap Economy: How One Terrorist Group Collected 90% of Nigeria’s Ransom Payments in a Single Year,” said Zamfara’s four anti-kidnap operations represented a stark mismatch with the scale of the crisis in the state.
SBM Intelligence said the state also recorded 211 civilian deaths, three kidnappers killed and 10 security personnel killed in connection with kidnapping incidents during the period.
Diphtheria: Kano gov’t disputes claim of 50 deaths, says only 2 recorded in Rano
Over 1,500 People Missing in Yobe – ICRC
“The performance in the fight against kidnappers across the country is reflected in the 302 anti-kidnap operations recorded across the country,” SBM said.
It noted that Zamfara, despite leading the country in kidnapping incidents, victims and civilian deaths, “recorded only four anti-kidnap operations all year.”
The research firm said the disparity pointed to a security response that had been overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis rather than an absence of effort.
“This stark mismatch points to a crisis that has overwhelmed the local security response, not an absence of effort,” it said, adding that the situation also reflected the capability of the groups carrying out the kidnappings.
The report, which relied on desk research, one-on-one interviews and SBM’s Violence Tracker, covered events between July 2025 and June 2026.
SBM said Nigeria recorded 1,411 kidnapping incidents and 302 kidnap-related incidents during the period, bringing the combined number to 1,713. It defines kidnap-related incidents as security-force operations against kidnappers.
A total of 7,825 people were abducted during the period, representing a 66 per cent increase from the previous cycle, when 4,722 people were kidnapped in 997 incidents.
At least 1,142 people were killed in the latest reporting period, comprising 895 civilians, 179 kidnappers and 68 security personnel.
The report said the Northwest remained the epicentre of the crisis, recording 680 kidnapping incidents, compared with 309 in the North-Central and 211 in the Northeast.
The three northern geopolitical zones jointly accounted for 85.1 per cent of all reported kidnapping incidents.
Beyond the number of incidents, Zamfara also recorded the highest number of victims nationally. The state’s 1,921 victims were significantly higher than the 1,157 recorded in Sokoto, 814 in Kaduna and 559 in Katsina.
SBM attributed the differences partly to variations in local security responses. It said Katsina’s lower victim figure, despite recording 187 incidents, could be linked to community and local government peace deals with bandits and the activities of the Katsina State Community Security Watch Corps, supported by conventional security agencies.
Sokoto, which recorded 179 incidents and 1,157 victims, was described as being affected by a mix of bandits, small kidnapping gangs and Lakurawa.
Kaduna recorded 134 incidents involving 814 victims.
Kwara is the first state outside the Northwest among the states with the highest figures, recording 89 incidents and 265 victims. One incident—the abduction of 176 people from Woro and Nuku communities in Kaiama Local Government Area in February 2026—accounted for 66.4 per cent of Kwara’s victims.
Mass abductions drive Zamfara figures
The SBM report found that mass abductions had become the dominant form of kidnapping in Nigeria, with Zamfara again recording the highest number.
SBM defines a mass abduction as an incident in which at least five people are abducted at once. Nationwide, 396 of the 1,411 kidnapping incidents, or 28.1 per cent, were mass abductions.
However, those incidents accounted for 6,222 victims, or 79.5 per cent of all people abducted.
Zamfara alone recorded 92 mass abductions involving 1,722 victims, the highest figures of any state.
The Northwest accounted for 267 of the 396 mass-abduction incidents, or 67.4 per cent. Sokoto followed Zamfara with 76 mass-abduction incidents involving 974 victims, while Kaduna recorded 47 incidents involving 671 victims and Katsina 33 involving 360 victims.
Mass abductions were also particularly deadly. SBM recorded 370 civilian deaths in mass-abduction incidents nationwide, including 99 in Zamfara, 108 in Sokoto and 57 in Kaduna.
The report said the northern pattern often involved entire communities, church congregations or groups of travellers being abducted and taken into forests, where victims could also be forced to work on farms and in artisanal mining operations controlled by kidnappers.
The largest single abduction during the period occurred in Ngoshe, Gwoza, Borno State, where 416 people were abducted in April 2026. The incident generated a N5 billion ransom demand, which was reportedly paid in full.
It was followed by the November 2025 abduction of 315 pupils and staff of St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State, for which N2 billion was reportedly paid.
Nigeria’s ransom economy
The surge in kidnappings coincided with a major increase in ransom payments nationwide.
SBM said kidnappers and allied groups demanded N22.856 billion between July 2025 and June 2026 and received N7.779 billion, representing a 34 per cent collection rate.
The amount demanded fell from N48 billion in the previous cycle, but ransom actually paid more than tripled from N2.56 billion.
The report attributed the increase largely to a small number of mass abductions involving organised terrorist groups.
The Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram and allied cells accounted for N7.0015 billion, or 90 per cent of all ransom paid in the country, from only eight recorded cases.
By contrast, the broader kidnapper category, which includes bandit- and criminal-gang-attributed cases, accounted for N13.492 billion in ransom demands across 146 cases but collected only N719.4 million, a 5.3 per cent collection rate.
Boko Haram’s JAS faction demanded N9.205 billion and collected N7.0015 billion, representing a 76.1 per cent collection rate.
The two largest ransom payments were the N5 billion paid following the Ngoshe abduction and the N2 billion reportedly paid for the release of those abducted from St Mary’s School in Papiri.
By state, Kwara recorded the highest ransom demand at N7.375 billion, followed by Borno with N5.698 billion, Kaduna with N1.459 billion, Edo with N1.205 billion and Kogi with N1.13 billion.
Borno, however, recorded the highest ransom payments at N5.0545 billion, followed by Niger with N2 billion, Kwara with N278.3 million, Kaduna with N64 million and Sokoto with N58 million. The five states accounted for 95.8 per cent of all ransom paid during the period.
SBM cautioned that the N7.779 billion figure was a conservative estimate because its researchers could establish the exact ransom amount in only 70 incidents. In another 16 incidents, the researchers confirmed that ransom was paid but could not verify the amount.
This means ransom changed hands in at least 86 incidents, suggesting that the actual amount paid by victims’ families was higher than the documented N7.779 billion.
Payment did not always guarantee survival
The report also found that ransom payment did not guarantee the safe release of victims.
In at least six incidents nationwide, victims were killed even after ransom had been paid.
One of the cases involved eight worshippers abducted from an ECWA church in Oro Ago, Kwara State, in March 2026. Although a N1 billion ransom was demanded and a community payment of N20 million was reportedly made, five of the captives, including a pastor’s wife, died in captivity.
A teacher at Federal Government College, Anka, in Zamfara was also killed after his family reportedly paid ransom, according to SBM.
The report further identified at least six cases in which people who went to deliver ransom were themselves abducted. They included a chief imam in Sabon Birni, Sokoto; two men who volunteered to deliver payment for five women abducted in Ekiti; and an Oodua Peoples Congress leader who was seized in Kwara while delivering ransom.
Kidnappers also demanded goods instead of, or alongside, cash in 14 incidents. The demands included motorcycles, rice, malt, milk, bread, cigarettes, smartphones, recharge cards, power banks, face caps, fuel and a vehicle.
SBM said the demands reflected the shrinking cash resources of victims’ families and the adaptation of the kidnapping economy to the economic circumstances of its targets.
The report concluded that kidnapping had evolved from a widespread criminal enterprise into a major source of financing for organised terrorist groups.
It warned that disrupting ransom flows and addressing the economic conditions that sustain recruitment would be necessary to break the cycle, noting that ransom payments increasingly finance the same groups responsible for perpetuating insecurity.
