22 Jan 2025

Mining and extractives / Armed groups and illicit economies in Nigeria

This paper explores the changing dynamics of transnational organised crime in Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara mining communities.

Armed groups’ involvement in illegal mining in Nigeria has exacerbated arms smuggling, consequently increasing insecurity and violent conflict in the country and across the Sahel. It’s also seen a rise in the kidnapping of women and girls for forced labour in the mines. Governments must deal with the socio-economic and political factors that sustain banditry in Nigeria’s North West Region, the involvement of armed groups in illegal mining and the transnational dimensions of the crime.

 

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