Blood on the land: Children stolen, communities massacred, generals fall. Who will defend the rest of us?

By Daniel Nduka Okonkwo

My country, where a decorated military general can be kidnapped by armed bandits in broad daylight, where bandits storm communities and slaughter entire families, is a country in crisis. From Plateau State to Zamfara, from Borno to Oyo, Nigeria has become a nation abandoned to terrorists, bandits, and armed militias, while Abuja offers amnesty to the killers.

Just days ago, suspected armed bandits kidnapped retired Nigerian Army Major General Rabe Abubakar, former Director of Defence Information, along with his wife, in Katsina State. As of publication, both remain in captivity with rescue operations underway. If the Nigerian state cannot protect its own generals, what hope remains for our farmers, our schoolchildren, and our rural poor?

The blood of innocents cries out from the soil of our land. Communities are razed, children are abducted, and livelihoods are destroyed. Yet instead of decisive action, we see negotiations, appeasement, and empty promises. Amnesty for killers is not justice; it is betrayal.

The time has come to say: enough. Enough of abandoned villages. Enough of mass graves. Enough of excuses. We must reclaim our sovereignty, restore our dignity, and protect our people.

They come at night, armed with AK-47s and machetes, with a pitiless certainty that no soldier, no police officer, no government will stop them. They burn homes, slaughter men, rape women, and seize children. When the sun rises on the charred ruins, on mothers shot dead with babies still strapped to their backs, on toddlers less than two years old lying in pools of blood, the government issues a statement, promises an investigation, and produces no meaningful result.

These are grave violations of the right to life, carried out in plain sight, in a country whose constitution guarantees every citizen that fundamental protection. The Tinubu government has responded with operations that human rights organisations assess as insufficient and amnesty frameworks that allow armed groups to avoid accountability for documented attacks on civilians.

“When babies are killed on their mothers’ backs and the government’s answer is amnesty for the perpetrators, that is not governance. That is a failure of the state’s most fundamental duty.”

The 2026 Global Terrorism Index places Nigeria as the fourth most terror-impacted country in the world, recording a 46 per cent surge in fatalities in 2025, even as neighbouring nations recorded declines. In the first four months of 2026 alone, 3,693 people were killed in mass atrocities. The trajectory is worsening.

PERIOD / GROUP
DEATHS
BEST VERIFIED SOURCE
FACT-CHECK NOTE
Jan–Mar 2026 nationwide killings
492
National Human Rights Commission
NHRC’s Q1 dashboard explicitly says it documented 492 killings and 651 kidnappings nationwide.
Nigeria Rights
April 2026 nationwide killings
No NHRC killing total is publicly stated in the dashboard text
National Human Rights Commission
The April dashboard lists complaints and affected states, but the snippet available publicly does not state a national killing figure.
Nigeria Rights +1
Jan–Apr 2026 (strict NHRC verified)
Cannot confirm one official total yet
NHRC
Because Q1 gives 492, but April’s publicly visible summary doesn’t add a death count.
Jan–Apr 2026 (other security trackers/media)
≈1,000+ reported deaths
security trackers/media

Armed Fulani pastoralist militias have overtaken Boko Haram and ISWAP as the single deadliest non-state threat to civilian life in Nigeria, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Its May 2026 report estimates 30,000 armed Fulani militants operating across Nigeria. Congressman Riley Moore, who led a bipartisan delegation to Nigeria, called the findings a “moral catastrophe” and confirmed that Fulani pastoralist militia groups caused more civilian deaths last year than Boko Haram and ISWAP combined.

“Armed Fulani militants have officially overtaken Boko Haram and ISIS as the deadliest terrorist threat in Nigeria.” U.S. Congressman Riley Moore, May 30, 2026.

Of 36,056 civilian killings recorded between 2019 and 2024, 47 per cent were attributed to Fulani pastoralist militias, with three Christians killed for every Muslim, according to the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.

More than 1,100 Nigerian schoolchildren were kidnapped in mass abductions between 2024 and 2026. In March 2024, 287 students were abducted in Kuriga, Kaduna State. In November 2025, 25 schoolgirls were taken in Kebbi State, and over 300 students and 12 teachers were seized from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State.

On May 15, 2026, two simultaneous mass abductions struck opposite ends of the country. In Borno State, Boko Haram stormed Mussa Primary and Junior Secondary School in Askira-Uba, abducting 48 confirmed victims including toddlers as young as two years old. On the same day in Oriire, Oyo State, bandits invaded three schools and seized 46 pupils and teachers. Mathematics teacher Michael Oyedokun was subsequently killed and beheaded in captivity. It was the first major school abduction ever recorded in the southwest. As of publication, the majority of victims remain in captivity. Teachers in Oriire have declared an indefinite strike. The geography of terror has reached the classroom gates of southern Nigeria.

In May 2025 alone, Nigeria recorded 365 violent incidents, the highest monthly figure on the African continent, with 635 deaths and 182 abductions in a single month, according to ACLED data. This is the product of a governance environment in which security forces are overstretched, institutional morale has been degraded, and systemic weaknesses have created exploitable gaps that armed groups use consistently and lethally.

Any policy that creates pathways to freedom from prosecution for participants in documented attacks on civilians, without requiring full disclosure and accountability, risks communicating to other armed groups that organised violence is a viable route to political recognition. It deepens the sense of abandonment felt by communities that were attacked. These concerns have been raised by Amnesty International, the United Nations, and domestic civil society.

“A policy of accountability without impunity is not vengeance. It is the minimum condition for rebuilding trust between the Nigerian state and the communities it has failed to protect.”

The U.S. State Department’s 2024 terrorism report recorded 408 incidents with 1,950 fatalities in Nigeria, noting that non-state armed groups caused more civilian deaths than all other forms of violence combined. Nigeria has been redesignated a Country of Particular Concern by President Trump in October 2025. Congressman Moore formally presented findings to the White House recommending the withholding of U.S. funds and sanctions against individuals complicit in religious persecution.

President Tinubu has contested external characterisations of Nigeria. It is legitimate for any government to do so. However, the death toll in this article is not a narrative. It is a verified count of human lives lost. The government’s obligation is not to contest the data but to change it.

ISWAP launched a renewed offensive in Borno State in March 2025. Boko Haram’s Shiroro cell has reached Niger State, close to Abuja. In the northwest, 30,000 armed militia members have sacked 638 villages and control 725 more across Zamfara, according to civil society data. Over 273 people have been killed and 467 abducted in Zamfara in two years. In Katsina, 294 deaths and 306 abductions have been recorded since May 2023. In Plateau State, 167 communities across eight local governments were attacked over two years, displacing 65,000 people.

The southwest has now been breached. There is no longer a safe zone. There is only one country whose government must decide whether it intends to govern and protect all of its people.

“There is no longer a safe zone. There is only a country whose government must decide whether it intends to protect all of its people.”

The Nigerian state has a constitutional obligation to protect the life and dignity of every citizen. That obligation is not being met. The voices of the displaced, the bereaved, and the terrorised have been loud enough for Washington, Geneva, and London to hear clearly.

What is required is a commitment, backed by resources, political will, and enforceable legal frameworks, to end the killing, prosecute the killers, and rebuild the communities that have been destroyed.

The blood of innocents cries out from the soil of this land. The question before every Nigerian, every elected official, and every international partner is simple: how long will we let it flow?

Daniel Nduka Okonkwo is an investigative journalist, human rights advocate, and policy analyst based in Abuja, Nigeria. He is the publisher of Profiles International Human Rights Advocate, a platform focused on accountability journalism, governance reporting, and the documentation of human rights issues across Africa. His work examines the intersection of political power, institutional accountability, systemic failure, and the human impact of corruption, with particular focus on Nigeria and the wider African continent.
Okonkwo’s reporting and analysis have been published in Sahara Reporters, African Defence Forum, Daily Trust, Vanguard, Daily Intel, Opinion Nigeria, African Angle, Local Newsbreak, and other international media outlets. His work is driven by a commitment to transparency, democratic governance, and justice. He also collaborates with Daniels Entertainment on human rights initiatives, extending his advocacy beyond traditional journalism into broader public engagement.
He is based in Abuja, Nigeria, and can be reached at dan.okonkwo.73@gmail.com.