Boko Haram, Bandits’ Kingpins expand footprints in Niger

* Warlords recruit natives for offensives, engage locals as farmhands
TWO notorious warlords, representing separate terror groups, are spearheading deadly attacks on communities in Niger communities, investigations by NEXTER reveal.
They are Dogo Gidae, a notorious bandit leader, whose name sent shivers down the spines of locals in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna States, and a Boko Haram commander, simply referred to as Malam Umar.
The duo has established control over areas designated as ‘red zones’, cutting across Shiroro, Rafi and Munya local government areas of Niger State. These areas are close to Kamuku forest, stretching from Birini Gwari LGA of Kaduna into Zamfara.
Before now sources claimed that bandits’ leaders such as Jack Bros aka Yellow, Baderi and Radde also expanded their tentacles to Rafi, Munya and Shiroro from Zamfara and Kaduna States.

However, NEXTER reliably gathered from informed sources that Gidae is the key bandit kingpin carrying out operation in the state along with Malam Umar and his boys after the death of Ali Kachalla, another notorious bandits’ leader terrorizing that area. Both leaders, sources said, maintained a “territory” or “kingdom” where they carry out their activities; most times unchallenged.
The notorious Boko Haram leader was said to have fled Borno State during a deadly face-off between the group and members of Islamic State of West Africa (ISWA), which left many BH commanders dead, to Kaduna State.
He embarked on recruitment drive targeting aggrieved bandit members who know the terrain in his new abode. Malam Umar’s name soon elicited fear across the bandits’ world when he began an incursion into their territories in Kaduna with his new recruits, especially in Birinin Gwari area.
To solidify his operation’s financial base, he was said to have turned to the ever-busy Kaduna-Abuja expressway, where he targets high profile passengers and families for ransom. When the expressway way became too hot for comfort the Boko Haram leader and his boys resorted to spontaneous raids in communities around Rafi in Niger State which shares border with Birinin Gwari in neighbouring Kaduna.

He later expanded his activities to Shiroro, Munya and part of Wushishi local government areas, it was further gathered.
However, the lush vegetation and thriving gold mining activities in Shiroro LGA made it a suitable abode enough to force his relocation fully to Niger State. It was the same motivation that lured Dogo Gidae and another notorious kingpin, Ali Kachalla to establish presence in the area.
Following the death of Kachalla in an air raid by the Air Force in December 2023, Gidae and Umar have lorded over the area.
NEXTER learnt from informed sources that Umar’s initial attempt to create an operation base around the area was resisted by both Gidea and Kachalla, resulting in deadly battles with casualties on all sides. Kachalla and Gidea had to succumb in the end because the duo discovered that it would be futile and dangerous to deny him a taste of the pie. “They realized that Umar is a formidable foe that should be avoided at all costs”, a source told said.
“First, he has the advantage of assemblage of more tactical fighters who are also loyal and very deadly. Secondly, Malam Umar’s group is more armed than all the bandit groups operating in the state combined. His group boasts of general-purpose machine guns (GPMG), rocket launchers and even armored tanks usually ceased from the military during operations, unlike bandits who rely on medium machine guns,” he explained.
Despite the advantages, however, a certain “familiar foe” working undercover with the state actors has been frustrating the Boko Haram kingpin’s operation in the area. Malam Mohammed Adamu, popularly known as the Sarkin Yakin Guguwa, the commander of the hunter association and his men halted Malam Umar’s ambition of establishing a command base in Chukuba community in Shiroro LGA, forcing the latter’s relocation two years ago in a fierce midnight battle that led to many casualties on the part of the Boko Haram leader.
The face-off, it was gathered, destabilized Malam Umar, forcing him and his team to beat a retreat and stayed underground for few months.
The Chukuba meeting of the two commanders was not the first encounter they had in the intricate and complex war on each sides over two decades. They have come face-to-face a couple of times in Borno and Yobe States as mere foot-soldiers under different commanders with both surviving the encounters.
NEXTER also gathered that Sarkin Yaki belongs to the century-old hunting association that abandoned their age-long vocation of chasing after animals to hunting Boko Harm since 2014 when the sect tried to make incursions into communities in his home state, Adamawa bordering Borno State.
He belongs to a group of volunteers under the leadership of Usman Tola, the chairman of the State chapter of the hunters’ association that killed hundreds of armed insurgents in the battlefields of Northern Adamawa, Southern Borno and around the dreadful Sambisa Forest.
They fought side-by-side with the military in efforts to reclaim Gombi, Hong, Mubi North, Mubi South, Maiha, Michika in Amawa, as well as Gwoza, and Askira in Borno at the height of Boko Haram’s rampage many years ago.
After successfully halting insurgents’ advance into Adamawa, Sarkin Yaki’s members were invited by the then Borno State Governor to fight alongside the Civilian JTF and the military to tackle the security challenges in that state. They also contained significantly, the insurgents’ activities in Yobe State following similar invitation.
It was gathered that by the time one of the country’s security outfits reached out to them for assistance in clearing the Abuja-Kaduna expressway which was made impassible by bandits, Sarkin Yaki was already the second in the hunters association’s command hierarchy. And when his commanders died during a confrontation with the bandits on that road, the task of leading the group fell on his shoulders.

As at the time of their entry into Niger State following the invitation of former governor Abuubakar Sani Bello three years ago, Sarkin Yaki had gained the reputation of a fearless and notorious bandit hunter. However, the encounter with Malam Umar was indicative of the fact that the crisis in Niger is was intricate and complex as the war he fought in the Northeast.
Malam Umar and his men were to latter force their way into Kwaki, displaced Kachalla’s men, established his operation base and hoisted the sect’s flag.
Source told NEXTER that Sarkin Yakin’s incapacitation in a “mistaken” Air Force bombardment on a supposed advancing bandits’ targets enabled Umar to consolidate his hold on the area and surrounding communities. Sarkin Yaki and his men in collaboration with members of vigilante group had engaged some bandits in a sustained battle for three days around Gawada and succeeded in dislodging them. On the third day of the intense battle, he got intelligence that some set of bandits were advancing towards Galadima Kogo area a nearby community on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.
He reached out to the authority on the possibility of an air cover from the Airforce against the advancing bandits, while his men and a few vigilantes move ahead and laid an ambush. Instead of targeting the bandits, the Airforce bombed the hunters and vigilantes members, killing 19 in what the authority said was a ‘mistaken’ attack. Sarkin Yaki was the only survivor in the attack which killed 14 of his close associates and five vigilantes.
Sources said that the incidents kept him away from the frontline for more than 10 months, giving the bandits and Boko Haram the leeway to operate unchallenged. When our reporters ran into him in a rundown part of Minna metropolis where he is recuperating recently, a leaping Sarkin Yakin vowed to dislodge Umar and Gidea from the state. Although a navy blue jallabiya conveniently hide the extent of injuries and scars he sustained in the attack, the effort he exerts in lifting his right foot while trying to walk is indicative of the fact that it will take more time for the commander to return to combat.
Sarkin Yaki’s men are however holding forth in areas designated as red zones. Our reporter encountered some of them while returning to base on motorcycles in Galadima Kogo where they maintain a command outpost. “They served as barrier between us and the bandit,” the community’s youth leader told NEXTER during the visit. Until Sarkin Yaki and his men halted their advances, bandits had overran the community, sack the police and the military outposts a couple of times.
For any visitor to the area, Galadima Kogo is the stopping point after its liberation from both Umar and Gidea’s men. This is not to however, rule out the possibility of encountering them on the way to the community around the forest that stretches up to Zumba.
Apart from the few security personnel at the entrance of the Shiroro dam around the Zumba point, our reporters did not see any patrol team on the journey to Galadima Kogo. At the Zumba central primary school which also served as the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp, the Sarkin Ruwa said it was not safe to proceed on the trip. “They operated in a nearby community a night before until the hunters and vigilantes moblised against them,” he explained. The youth leader also collaborated Sarkin Ruwa’s position that it was dangerous to stray into the outskirt of Galadima Kogo when Sarkin Yaki’s men are not on patrol especially close the gold mining area.
The mining sites stretched through Kwaki, Udawa and part of Alawa, the areas designated as red zones. Despite their inaccessibility because of the deadly activities of the bandits and Boko Haram members, mining companies still operate in the area. Kwaki is said to be Umar’s operational base, while Gidea controls Udawa and environs and part of Alawa.
“Both warlords are deeply involved in gold mining business,” a source revealed. Many times, the two leaders have engaged each other in the battle for control, the latest of which was in February 2024 between Kwaki and Udawa with casualties on both sides, barely a month after the deadly air raid that removed Sarkin Yaki from the frontline.
The duo NEXTER reliably gathered, also owned large farms across their areas of control. They took over the lands after the owners were forced out of their communities in incessant raids. Some natives have to pledge allegiance to the warlords as insurance for their safety. Such persons are used as farm hands, and during the off season, pay certain amount as taxes.
The youth leader expressed optimism that the hunters’ association members can turn the tide against Umar and Gidea by restoring sanity to the entire axis. “But they need their leader to push further in the hunt for Umar, Gidea and their men,” he averred. However, as they await the return of Sarkin Yaki, the bandits and Boko Haram have been on rampage, killing and maintaining.
Accounts by fleeing villagers indicated that Sarkin Yaki would meet a more complex situation when he eventually returned to the front with massive recruitment of natives by the warlords to strengthen their operations ongoing.
Some women who escaped into the IDP camp in Zumba from communities in Munya LGA told our reporters that the bandits who attacked them and killed their husbands speak Gbagyi. “It was shocking when our attackers started barking out instructions in our own language instead of Fulfude as was the case in the past,” they said.
Sarkin Ruwa confirmed what they called a very disturbing dimension to the lingering crisis in a separate interview, fearing that with the twist thete is hardly an end to the pillage and bloodletting any time soon.