The governor of a troubled Nigerian state has inaugurated a 2,600-strong vigilante force to combat violent criminal gangs terrorising the country’s northwest.
Impoverished Zamfara state is one of several in the region plagued by criminals known as bandits who raid and loot villages, kill residents and burn houses to the ground.
The gangs maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, and have carried out mass kidnappings of students from schools in recent years.
Zamfara previously banned vigilante groups over concerns they were dr iving the cycle of violence and experts have voiced fears, but authorities say the new outfit has undergone thorough training to prevent abuses.
Governor Dauda Lawal Dare declared the formation of the Zamfara State Community Protection Guards at a ceremony in the state capital Gusau on Wednesday.
“Today, the first batch of 2,645 community volunteer guards are graduating,” footage broadcast by Nigerian media showed Dare telling a cheering crowd.
“These young energetic and vibrant personnel have undergone rigorous training, extensive drilling as well as understanding the rules of engagement…
to defend our communities,” he said.
Addressing the vigilantes in their yellow and purple uniforms, he said that after two months of instruction they were now ready to “help end banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling.”
He acknowledged these crimes had “become endemic for over a decade” and said “Zamfara has consistently remained in the spotlight for the wrong reason”.
Banditry in the northwest is just one of the severe security challenges Nigerian authorities are struggling to control.
Though the bandits are driven by financial gain, there are con cerns among officials and analysts about their growing ties with jihadists waging a 14-year insurgency in the northeast.