This section outlines the extent of UKSF’s operations in Nigeria.

On Tuesday 17 May 2022, an took place near a school in Sabon Gari, Kano (Nigeria). The casualty count was eventually confirmed at nine fatalities and 27 people injured.

Immediately following the blast, authorities claimed it was due to a gas cylinder explosion, although witnesses claimed to have seen a suicide bomber blow himself up. However, in the last few days, Nigerian police have arrested two Boko Haram suspects and confirmed that the blast was due to an IED explosion.

Two suicide attacks in Nigeria’s typically more peaceful Middle Belt state of Taraba have been claimed by ISWAP. Both attacks, one in the rural community of Iware, and the other in Jalingo, the state’s capital, seem to have been targeting drinking establishments. These latest incidents are a symptom of the spreading Islamist insurgencies that have been active in Nigeria’s northeast for over a decade, as IS-affiliated groups expand their operational areas.

Since the first suicide bombing incident that killed the Tsar of Russia in 1881, the world has witnessed an increased number of suicide attacks, most significantly in recent years. In 1976 there were no reported suicide bombings, but in 2016 there were 469 attacks across 28 countries.  To put it another way, in the last […]

At least 118 people are now thought to have been killed in yesterday’s catastrophic bombing in central Nigeria. With casualty numbers still rising, the attack in the city of Jos will be one of the deadliest to hit the country in years. As Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) revealed in last year’s ‘The Violent Road’, […]

A month ago today, up to 300 girls were kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria. It is reported that over 200 – some say 276 – are still missing. Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group who carried out the abductions, has threatened to sell the girls. If this happens they will possibly be sold […]

The issue of armed violence is becoming more and more noticed as a major problem in Nigeria.  The recent kidnapping of hundreds of girls has highlighted the deep rooted issues of violence in this West African power. The truth is that Nigeria is, and has been for a long while, one of the African countries […]

Every day civilians are killed and injured by explosive weapons, either the rockets and air-dropped bombs of a conventional military, or an improvised explosive device (IED). Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) records the incidents of explosive violence as they happen around the world. Using English-language media sources, AOAV collects data on attacks, including on the […]

Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo Politics The South West region is home to two of Nigeria’s three largest cities: Lagos and Ibadan. As a national and continental economic hub, Lagos sees a high level of political demonstrating, some of which has turned violent. The city saw high rates of rioting in January 2012, when […]

Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo Politics As elsewhere in Nigeria, politics and armed violence have been closely interlinked in the South East region, with formal political processes and electoral cycles frequently accompanied by violence. Arms made available to political thugs during election periods have a deep link to post-election violence in the region. It is […]

Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Rivers Politics Economics, politics and armed violence are often closely interlinked in the region. With political elites buffered by proceeds from oil revenue, governance in the region is weak and often unaccountable, subsequently making limited progress addressing underlying drivers of conflict in the region.270 The large urban centre […]

Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara Politics Politics in Northern Nigeria are often framed in terms of binary narratives that pitch the country’s North against South, or its Muslim population against its Christian community. These narratives mask much more complex dynamics. In the North West, violence has often accompanied key political junctures such as electoral […]