IN the last three months January to March, 1,308 civilians have been killed in violent attacks, while 1,333 have been kidnapped across Nigeria.
This is according to data gathered by The ICIR from the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a website that tracks violent incidents related to political, economic, and social grievances directed at the state or other affiliated groups.
Niger state recorded the highest number of deaths from insecurity across the country, with 787 deaths in 90 days.
This means that an average of eight people died every day from violent attacks during the first quarter of the year.
Zamfara state follows with 337 deaths, Borno state 322 deaths, Kaduna state 230 deaths and Katsina state 203 deaths.
During the first quarter of the year, a total of 2619 deaths were recorded, with 996 in January, 758 in February and 865 in March.
The data showed that from January to March 2022, there were 520 violent attacks, out of which 474 were carried out by non-state actors across the 36 states and the capital.
Out of the attacks, Kaduna, Niger, Imo, Borno, and Katsina states recorded the highest number of attacks in Nigeria.
Kaduna state, which has been the centre of insecurity in recent times, recorded 49 attacks; Niger recorded 41, Imo state had 34 attacks, Borno state also recorded 34 attacks, and Katsina had 26 attacks.
The number of deaths and kidnappings recorded in the first quarter of 2022 shows a massive increase in the spate of insecurity in Nigeria.
For the whole of 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of power, there were a total of 926 kidnap victims across the country.
Although there was a decrease in 2016 when 347 persons were kidnapped, the following year, increased to 492.
Since 2017, the number of kidnap victims has increased as there were 987 victims in 2017, 987 in 2018; 1,395 in 2019; 2,865 in 2020, and 5287 in 2021.
Who is responsible?
Terrorist groups, secessionist agitators, and insurgents, among others, are responsible for the increasing number of deaths and kidnappings in the country.
A recent report by the Centre for Democracy Development (CDD) highlighted the drivers of conflicts across the six geo-political regions in the country.
For more than a decade, Nigeria has struggled to rid itself of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram, which have continued to launch attacks on the State and its people.
The CDD report noted that the herders/farmers conflict, banditry is responsible for the violence in the North-West, terrorism and insurgence in the North-East, banditry and farmer/herders crisis in North-Central.
It further noted that in the South-South, South-East and South-West, the drivers of violence in the region are farmers/herders clashes, kidnapping, ritual killing, and secessionist agitations.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94