Rural Banditry in Northwest Nigeria Amidst a Global Pandemic: A Gender Perspective

Rural banditry in Nigeria’s northwest in recent years has made the zone a hotbed of violence. What started as localized disputes in the agro-pastoral sector in 2010 has today metamorphosed into an intractable crisis posing a major threat to national and regional security. Banditry in the zone is characterized by large scale killings, abductions, raids on communities, rape of women and girls and displacement of people and is exacerbated by collapse of governance and absence of law and order, injustice, porous borders and proliferation of Small and Light Weapons (SALWs) among others. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, banditry continues to take devastating tolls on its victims, especially women who are the most vulnerable in times of crisis. Women and girls face a double challenge of gender-based violence perpetrated by bandits and intimate partners during the global health crisis. The pervasiveness, intensity and intractability of banditry in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic is worrisome as it could make worse existing gender inequalities such as rape, transactional sex, child marriages, increase in the number of out-of-school girls and the practice of purdah. To address the conflict, a multi-approach involving all stakeholders in the conflict is recommended.