A decade-long field research conducted across northern Nigeria has identified armed Fulani groups as the dominant perpetrators of violent attacks in the Northwest and North Central regions, challenging what the author describes as “simplistic” narratives that frame the crisis merely as banditry or farmer-herder clashes.
In a detailed report, researcher Steven Kefas argued that the violence ravaging parts of northern Nigeria is “ethno-religious in character,” involving organised armed groups with cross-border links, sophisticated weaponry, and coordinated operations targeting mainly farming communities.
Kefas, who said he spent over 10 years conducting interviews with victims, survivors, community leaders and witnesses across affected states, maintained that more than 95 per cent of perpetrators identified during his field investigations were of Fulani origin.
According to him, the findings align with reports from international and local monitoring organisations, including the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), which he said documented a disproportionately high number of Christian victims in attacks across the Northwest and Middle Belt regions.
“In Nigeria’s Northwest comprising states such as Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Kaduna, the dominant perpetrators of mass violence are armed groups widely referred to as ‘bandits’,” he wrote.
“Approximately 30,000 Fulani bandits operate in several groups in northwest Nigeria, with individual groups consisting of anywhere from 10 to 1,000 members.”
Kefas described the groups as highly organised armed networks that have seized territories, imposed illegal taxes on rural communities, and launched deadly attacks on farming settlements.
He referenced a 2021 statement by former Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari, who publicly acknowledged that many of the bandits were Fulani.
“Majority of those involved in this banditry are Fulanis, whether it is palatable or not, but that is the truth,” Masari had said during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The researcher also pointed to the July 2021 downing of a Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet by bandits as evidence that the groups possess insurgent-level capabilities.
Kefas further claimed that attacks in parts of the Northwest frequently carried religious undertones, citing reported destruction of churches, assaults on Christian communities, and witness accounts of attackers chanting “Allahu Akbar” during raids.
He argued that while economic and ethnic factors remain relevant, religion had become an identifiable marker in many attacks.
“The violence should be understood as ethno-religious in character: ethnicity and religion are intertwined as both motivation and method,” he stated.
The report also highlighted growing alliances between armed bandit groups and extremist organisations such as Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, Mahmuda, and Lakurawa operating in parts of northern Nigeria.
In the North Central region, particularly Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Niger and Kwara states, Kefas alleged that armed Fulani militias were responsible for repeated attacks on predominantly Christian farming communities.
He cited the Christmas Eve attacks in Plateau State in December 2023, which reportedly left about 200 people dead, as well as the June 2025 Yelwata killings in Benue State, where at least 258 persons were reportedly killed.
“These are not isolated incidents,” he said.
“They form part of a sustained and escalating pattern of violence against settled farming communities.”
Kefas also alleged that some armed groups maintained camps in Nasarawa State, using them as operational bases for attacks across neighbouring states.
According to him, the destruction of churches, targeting of pastors, and repeated religious chants during attacks reinforced the ethno-religious dimension of the violence.
The researcher referenced comments made in 2016 by former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who disclosed that his administration had engaged Fulani groups, including foreign fighters from neighbouring African countries, in efforts to halt killings in Southern Kaduna.
Kefas criticised the continued description of the crisis as “farmer-herder clashes,” arguing that such characterisation downplays the scale, organisation and motives behind the violence.
“Framing this crisis as mere ‘ethnic conflict’ or ‘farmer-herder clashes’ serves several false purposes: it implies mutual fault between two equal parties, it erases the religious dimension of targeting, and it obscures the organised, predatory, and often one-sided nature of attacks on civilian communities,” he wrote.
He called on policymakers, international organisations and security agencies to adopt what he described as a more honest understanding of the conflict in order to develop effective responses capable of protecting vulnerable communities.
Kefas noted that data referenced in the report were sourced from ORFA, while some of his earlier reports on affected communities were published by Middle Belt Times.
