A newly surfaced terror group, identified as Lakurawa, is reportedly offering one million naira to young men in exchange for their loyalty and recruitment.
This revelation was shared by Zagazola Makama, a counterterrorism and insurgency expert in the Lake Chad Basin, on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Saturday.
According to Makama, a reliable source disclosed that Lakurawa is allegedly composed of operatives from Mali, Chad, Libya, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
The group is reportedly targeting local youth in Sokoto State, seeking to expand its influence through substantial financial incentives aimed at bolstering their ranks.
He stated that according to witnesses’ accounts, the financial lure is part of an aggressive recruitment campaign aimed at attracting followers to their cause.
The security expert said that Lakurawa, unlike traditional criminal gangs, reportedly adhere to extremist ideologies linked to the Khawarij sect, similar to the beliefs of Boko Haram.
“Local sources suggest that they employ a combination of financial incentives and ideological influence to gain support among vulnerable communities.
“Beyond the recruitment, the Lakurawa reportedly confront and expel bandits and confiscate their cattle in areas under their control.
“The Lakurawa extremists are yet to carry out any attack in the North West.” Makama added.
How Lakurawa terror group emerged in Northwestern Nigeria
The Lakurawas, once herders, turned militant in response to the Malian crisis. They appeared along the Nigeria-Niger border in Sokoto’s Gudu and Tangaza regions, not just for cattle grazing but with an armed presence.
Around October 2018, about 200 fighters arrived from Niger, identified by locals as Arabic and Fulfulde-speaking herders from Mali. Over the last decade, northwestern Nigeria has faced increasing rural terrorism, with militants displacing villagers, controlling a kidnap-for-ransom economy, and severely impacting local communities.
In areas like Wassaniya, Tabaringa, Mulawa, and Jina-Jini, where government presence is scarce, some local leaders sought out the Lakurawas for security against bandits. The District Heads of Gudu and Tangaza collaborated with the head of a local cattle breeders’ association to hire the Lakurawas to fight local bandits, despite warnings against it.
While initially successful in driving out bandits, the group soon began enforcing its own rules and collecting forced taxes (zakat), straining relations with locals.
The first victim of the group when they first arrived at the area was a traditional ruler, the District head of Balle, the headquarters of Gudu Local Government Area, Magajin Garin Balle, who was beheaded by the group after a misunderstanding between the sect and his son.
The group later had its first encounter with security agents in the densely populated forest in Gongono, where many extremists were killed after which the jihadists’ flag was recovered.
After the encounter with security agents, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association issued a statement, saying the jihadists were not terrorists as claimed but herdsmen from Mali, adding that nobody should disturb them.
This was despite evidence that they had seized many communities in two Local Government Areas of the state and forcing them to pay taxes.
Tangaza/Gudu Federal Constituency is surrounded by two forests that include DarnaTsaulawo Forest that stretches to Gwadabawa, Illela and Niger Republic and Kuyan Bana forest which extends to Gudu and Niger Republic.
Sani Alhaji Yakubu, a member of the National Assembly representing the area, revealed that the terrorists have joined forces and vowed to make life difficult for people who are predominantly farmers in the area.
He said: “The two forests house two terrorist groups, the Lakurawa who claimed to be jihadists from Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and the local Bandits.
“The two groups who were earlier sworn enemies, have now joined forces, making it much more difficult for deployed security operatives to penetrate or cordon the the general area of the forest.
In his motion at the floor of the National Assembly, Yakubu urged the military to deploy more personnel and hardwares to comb the forests to flush out criminals.
“ People of my constituency are always in shackles of one terrorists group or the other since 2018 and government is not doing enough to free them from the groups wanton attacks and cattle rustling.”
The situation worsened when funds raised to arm the group led to accusations of embezzlement and eventually violence. The Lakurawas’ first major attack on a military base in Sokoto occurred in August, killing three soldiers and burning a vehicle.
Now, their focus includes targeting security forces while pushing civilians to follow strict Islamist rules and regularly demanding alms. This militant group continues to spread across communities in Sokoto, enforcing their ideological principles and undermining local authority.
Military declared Lakuwara a “new terror group”
Earlier this week, however, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters declared the so-called herders are “a new terror group” affiliated with jihadists in the Sahel, a region that accounts for sizable chunks of global terrorism deaths.
”Now that we know where they are, we are already going after them, and we will take them out,” Defence Headquarters spokesman Maj-Gen Edward Buba, said.
According to him, the sect is linked to Islamic State (ISIS).
He added that when they settled in Sokoto and Kebbi, the people did not raise the alarm until they started their nefarious activities.
The military, therefore, declared nine members of the group wanted. They are Abu Khadijah, Abdurrahman, Dadi Gumba a.k.a Abu Muhammed, Usman Shehu, Abu Yusuf, Musa Wa’a, Ibrahim Suyeka, Ba Sulhu and Idris Taklakse. Now, the police have claimed that the terrorist group operates in areas like Tangaza, Gudu, Ilela, Binji, and Silame, and is believed to have entered the border communities from countries like Niger, Chad, and Mali.
