Banditry — Nigeria's worst-affected state (2011 — present)

Zamfara is, by virtually every measure, the worst-affected state in Nigeria's North-West banditry crisis. The epidemic — traced by the most careful researchers to armed Fulani-herder / sedentary-farmer conflicts that militarised from around 2011 in Zamfara's frontier LGAs (Anka, Bukkuyum, Maru, Shinkafi, Zurmi) — has produced sustained kidnappings-for-ransom, mass village displacements, and the collapse of state security across much of the state's rural geography by the mid-2010s. The federal Air Force-led 'Operation Hadarin Daji' was launched in 2020, with successive military operations through the Buhari and Tinubu administrations failing to restore full civilian authority to the worst-affected LGAs. The crisis is documented in detail at the Armed Forces hub and the Federal Cabinet (Defence) entry.