Terror Group Mahmuda Emerges in North-Central Nigeria, Wreaks Havoc

A terror group known as Mahmuda has attacked rural villages and communities in north-central Nigeria’s Kwara and Niger States, often in and around Kainji Lake National Park.

On April 20, the armed group, wearing camouflage and riding motorcycles, attacked a Kwara market and shot dead four Fulani men, a local guard and a 19-year-old who was hit by a stray bullet.

“We suspect that they came with a premeditated motive because they fired at the Fulani at close range shooting them in the head,” an anonymous source told Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspaper. The source said the guard was holding a gun “and they saw him as a threat.”

The Daily Trust reported another Mahmuda attack that killed a vigilante in nearby Kaiama the same day. On April 16, Mahmuda fighters killed 15 members of a vigilante group in the Kwara village of Kemanji. Kwara State Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said at the time his government was working with the military and other agencies to dismantle the cell.

“What we are seeing today is the non-state actors targeting the vigilantes in a reprisal attack and this will come to pass,” AbdulRazaq said in a Daily Trust report. “This is because we are working with the military who have visited the place, made contact and had robust engagement.”

Mahmuda, believed to be a breakaway Boko Haram faction, is also known as the Mallam Group after its leader’s name; both groups are linked to the Islamic State. In an effort to recruit new members, the group has highlighted a more moderate ideology than Boko Haram and preaches in Hausa and other local languages. Kwara State locals said Mahmuda is gradually recruiting local fighters and informants.

“Before now, we had called the attention of the authorities and security operatives to [Mahmuda’s] growing influence and it was only recently that the military led a major onslaught against them which included aerial bombardments, killing many of them,” Kwara State resident Alhaji Haruna Idirissa, told the Daily Trust.

Mahmuda is believed to have links with groups in Mali and Niger. It migrated to Kwara from Niger State and occupied the Kainji Lake National Park more than five years ago after raiding it and driving away its guards.

A source told SaharaReporters that the group finances its operations by charging park dues to herders and levies to farmers and making locals work on its farms as a forced form of “sadaka,” an Islamic almsgiving. It also generates revenue through kidnappings and ransom, while reports say the group also is involved in illegal mining.

“In their ploy to deceive the people with religion, they timely gather community members to preach about Islamic ethics as well as persuade community members to be disloyal to the Nigerian state and also instruct that any disputes within the community must be reported to them,” the source told SaharaReporters, which reported the group also has gained control over communities in Niger State’s Borgu Local Government Area.

Wasiu Abiodun, spokesperson of the Niger State Police Command, said police are working with the military to dislodge the group.

“A series of clearance operations have been carried out within the [Kainji Lake] National Park,” Abiodun told Nigeria’s Foundation for Investigative Journalism. “The operation is a continuous exercise and shall be sustained to ensure that the area is cleared of banditry.”

Terror groups such as Ansaru, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province and Lakurawa also operate in north-central Nigeria. Lakurawa gained notoriety last year after it was accused of killing 15 people in Mera, a Kebbi State town, and stealing a large number of cattle.

The Nigerian Army labeled Lakurawa as a new group, but Murtala Ahmed Rufa’i, an associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, wrote that the group has operated in several communities along the Nigeria-Niger border since 1999. At least 91,740 Nigerians were killed between 2011 and 2024 in a total of 14,779 “insecurity incidents,” according to the Daily Trust.

“It is like our country has become a fertile ground for all manner of terrorist groups, militias, marauders, bandits, and extremists,” Chidi Omeje, a security expert, told Nigeria’s Punch newspaper.