More people were killed by bandits or insurgents in Nigeria in the first half of this year than in all of 2024, according to figures released yesterday by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

According to the figures, at least 2,266 people were killed in the first half of 2025, compared to 1,083 in the first half of 2024 and 2,194 for the full year.

Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, said about 90 per cent of bandits terrorising the state were neither strangers nor outsiders, but people living within communities.

Speaking, yesterday, on ‘Sunrise Daily’, a Channels Television programme, Radda said insecurity remained a major obstacle to meaningful development in the state.

Nigeria’s military has been stretched thin, fighting a multi-front war against Boko Haram and other terrorists in the North-East, banditry and kidnappings in the North-West, armed herders’ attacks in the North-Central states and secessionists in the South-East.

The situation worsened lately, with 606 people killed last month alone, including in attacks by gunmen on the Yelwata and Daudu communities in Benue State where around 200 people were killed.

Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, disclosing the figures during a presentation in Abuja, called for urgent and decisive action from the government.

“These were not mere figures on a report; they were fathers, mothers, children and breadwinners; families torn apart, livelihoods destroyed, and futures extinguished in moments of senseless brutality,” Ojukwu said.

The agency reported 857 people abducted in the first half of 2025, though this was a decline from 1,461 in the same period last year.

It also noted a trend of attacks against law enforcement and local security forces, with more than 17 soldiers killed in Kaduna and Niger states and over 40 members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) killed in Zamfara State.

Radda said while governors serve as security chiefs in their states, the army and police operate independently.

The governor said to bolster security efforts, the state created a local outfit composed of youths drawn from areas affected by banditry.

“These boys know the terrain better; they know those people better,” he said. “Most of the perpetrators of the banditry are from our area. They are not aliens. Over 90 per cent of them, we know their fathers, their grandfathers, and they are living with us.”

He restated the importance of involving locals in the fight against banditry. (The Guardian, but headline rejigged)