Three women killed as Bachama–Tsobo crisis resurfaces in Adamawa

By: Zagazola Makama

The killing of three Tsobo women on a dry season rice farm in Numan Local Government Area has reignited the Bachama–Chobo conflict, whose roots stretch far beyond the sound of gunfire.

Zagazola Makama report that the latest incident occurred on Friday at about 10:30 a.m. while some Tsobo women were working on their dry-season rice farm. Sources said that suspected Bachama youths stormed the farming area in large numbers and began shooting sporadically. In the process, three women were shot dead,” the source said.

The killing of the three Tsobo women on a dry-season rice farm in Numan is not an isolated tragedy. It is the latest expression of a conflict whose roots lie far deeper than gunshots, farmlands or a single failed peace meeting.

The Bachama–Chobo crisis is a classic Nigerian communal conflict, layered, historical, emotional and politically combustible where land ownership, identity, chieftaincy authority and generational amnesia have fused into a dangerous cocktail.

At its core, the crisis is not merely about who owns which farmland. It is about who belongs, who rules, and who decides the future of a shared space. For centuries, Bachama and Chobo communities lived together in Numan and its environs under a largely harmonious arrangement. Markets were shared. Water points were communal. Schools, hospitals and even marriages crossed ethnic lines. There was no rigid separation between “host” and “settler” in daily life.

That coexistence was sustained not by written treaties or court judgments, but by social contracts rooted in tradition, mutual respect and the authority of traditional institutions. Disputes over land were settled locally. Authority was recognised, even if grudgingly. Peace endured because both sides saw coexistence as more valuable than confrontation.

What has changed is not history but how history is interpreted, weaponised and transmitted to younger generations. The Bachama and Chobo tell fundamentally different origin stories, and each story carries political implications.

The Chobo present themselves as original inhabitants, landlords who accommodated Bachama migrants out of goodwill. From this perspective, the Bachama are “guests” who have overstayed their welcome and now seek to dominate both land and chieftaincy.

The Bachama counter this narrative by portraying the Chobo as mountain dwellers who were encouraged to descend into the plains, settled and supported through leased farmlands. In this account, Bachama authority is not imposed but historically earned.

Neither narrative is neutral. Each defines who has moral legitimacy, who should defer, and who has the right to rule. Once such narratives harden, compromise becomes betrayal and dialogue becomes surrender.

Investigations and community testimonies consistently point to farmland disputes involving Waduku and Rigange as the immediate triggers of violence. But land is only the spark, not the fuel. Land disputes in Nigeria rarely remain about boundaries alone. They quickly evolve into questions of identity and power, especially where farming is the primary means of survival.

For Chobo communities described as largely mountain dwellers, access to fertile plains is existential. For Bachama communities, control of land reinforces political and traditional dominance. Once farming rights are framed as existential threats, moderation disappears.

Historically, traditional rulers resolved such disputes. Today, that mechanism is broken.
The Chobo’s rejection of traditional mediation stems from their perception that the entire traditional hierarchy is Bachama-dominated, making justice structurally impossible. From their standpoint, accepting verdicts from Bachama-led institutions amounts to legitimising subordination.

The Bachama, however, see this rejection as bad faith and intransigence, especially when mediation panels include Chobo representatives. Each side believes the other is deliberately undermining peace. This mutual distrust has hollowed out traditional conflict-resolution systems, leaving a vacuum filled by courts, security forces and increasingly youth militancy.

Perhaps the most dangerous element in the crisis is generational. Older community leaders remember coexistence. Younger actors remember grievance. Many of today’s youths were born into suspicion, not solidarity. They inherited anger without inheriting context.

Slogans like “Sokoto must go” illustrate how historical migration narratives are simplified into political weapons. Such rhetoric does not seek negotiation; it seeks erasure. Once a community is told it must “return” after centuries of settlement, violence becomes not only possible but, to some, justified. Social media, music and street mobilisation have amplified these sentiments, weakening elders’ authority and making youth groups de facto power brokers.

The chieftaincy question has transformed the conflict from communal disagreement into a struggle over sovereignty. Bachama leaders insist that Chobo fall under the statutory authority of the Hamma Bachama. Chobo leaders reject this, seeing it as symbolic domination. Withdrawal of allegiance was not merely cultural, it was political defiance.

Peace talks collapsed largely because reconciliation was framed as submission rather than coexistence. Apologies demanded, loyalties reaffirmed and conditions imposed turned dialogue into a zero-sum contest. In conflicts of identity, dignity often matters more than land.

The Adamawa State Government, through peace agencies and direct intervention by Gov. Ahmadu Umar Fintiri, has made sustained efforts to mediate between the warring communities. Multiple meetings involving elders, youth representatives, traditional rulers and government officials have been held. Yet, each round of talks has ended without lasting agreement, often undermined by fresh outbreaks of violence shortly after. Curfews and security deployments have restored temporary calm, but residents say such measures amount to enforced silence rather than genuine peace.
The renewed violence has taken a heavy toll on civilians, particularly women engaged in farming and trading.

Community leaders lament that farms and markets once symbols of shared livelihood have become theatres of bloodshed. The killing of women working on rice farms has deepened fears and resentment, reinforcing the sense that the conflict has spiralled beyond control. The Bachama–Chobo crisis mirrors broader challenges across Nigeria, where disputes over land, identity and traditional authority intersect with weak dispute-resolution mechanisms and rising youth radicalisation.

Until issues of legitimacy, land access and historical grievances are addressed through an inclusive and neutral process, observers warn that violence will continue to recur.
End

NDLEA Intercepts Drugs Hidden in Coffee Sachets, Detains 22 Indians Over Cocaine Shipment

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has recorded a major breakthrough in its nationwide crackdown on drug trafficking, intercepting illicit substances concealed in coffee sachets and arresting 22 Indian nationals linked to a large cocaine seizure at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.

Operatives of the agency intercepted consignments of ketamine, ecstasy and tramadol pills hidden inside sachets of coffee mix and parcels of books destined for Zambia and the United Kingdom. The seizures were made at a courier facility in Lagos on December 24 and 29, 2025.

In a related operation, NDLEA officers arrested the entire crew of a merchant vessel, MV Aruna Hulya, after 31.5 kilogrammes of cocaine were discovered in Hatch 3 of the ship at the GDNL terminal, Apapa last Friday . The vessel had arrived from the Marshall Islands.

Those taken into custody include the ship’s master, Sharma Shashi Bhushan, and 21 other Indian crew members, all of whom are being investigated for their alleged roles in the trafficking attempt.

Meanwhile, in Oyo State, NDLEA operatives arrested a notorious female drug dealer, 65-year-old Fatima Ilori, popularly known as Mama Kerosine, following an intelligence-led operation in Ibadan. The suspect, described as a major distributor of illicit drugs in the state, was apprehended on December 29, 2025, alongside another woman, Olusanya Abosede, 35. The arrest followed the seizure of 238.4 kilogrammes of skunk linked to the drug network.

In Borno State, the agency disrupted supply routes feeding illicit drugs to insurgents with the arrest of two suspects and the seizure of large quantities of tramadol.

A suspect, Isa Mohammed, 26, was arrested along the Maiduguri–Gamboru Ngala road with 9,150 ampoules of tramadol injection, while Musa Samaila, 30, was nabbed at Biu market with 34,000 tramadol capsules on the same day.

The spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi in a statement on Sunday, said additional seizures were recorded across several states. He said in Lagos, operatives recovered about 400 kilogrammes of skunk and a van at the Mobolaji Johnson area on New Year’s Day. In Jigawa State, a suspect, Bilya Ibrahim, 39, was arrested at a motor park in Hadejia while attempting to transport 260 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 140.8 kilogrammes from Taraba State to Yobe State.

In Kwara State, NDLEA officers recovered 238.5 kilogrammes of skunk from a suspect’s residence in the Asadam area of Ilorin. Another suspect, Abubakar Rabiu, 32, was arrested at Bode Saadu in Moro Local Government Area with 32,000 pills of tramadol and diazepam last Wednesday.

Babafemi noted that beyond enforcement operations, the agency intensified its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns during the week, reaching schools, youth groups, worship centres and communities in states including Katsina, Lagos and Niger.

Commending the officers involved in the operations, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (rtd), urged commands nationwide to sustain and strengthen the agency’s drug control efforts.

NDLEA Intercepts Drugs Hidden in Coffee Sachets, Detains 22 Indians Over Cocaine Shipment

How ground pressure, air power are reshaping the war against banditry in Nigeria’s North-West

By Zagazola Makama

The opening days of 2026 have laid bare a defining reality of Nigeria’s North-West security landscape: the war against banditry is no longer episodic or localised, but a fluid, intelligence-driven contest unfolding simultaneously across multiple states, terrains and threat vectors.

From Katsina to Niger, Kano and Zamfara, a chain of interlinked incidents reveals both the growing effectiveness of air power and intelligence-led ground operations, and the stubborn adaptability of armed criminal networks determined to survive under pressure.

At the core of the evolving campaign is the decisive Nigerian Air Force (NAF) offensive under Operation FANSAN YANMA in Katsina State. Sustained Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) enabled air assets to track the movement of about 50 motorcycles suspected to be ferrying armed bandits along a known infiltration corridor. When a large cluster converged in the Matazu axis, the convergence point was designated and struck with precision. Zagazola later obtained a video footage of the strike with dozens of bandits scattered and burnt beyond recognition.

The impact went beyond the immediate neutralisation of several bandits. By breaking a massed movement likely intended for an attack, redeployment or logistics transfer, the strike achieved a critical operational effect: fragmentation. In contemporary bandit warfare, where speed, numbers and surprise are force multipliers, denying criminals the ability to assemble is often as decisive as killing them outright.

Post-strike behaviour reinforced this assessment. Surviving elements scattered in disarray, disrupting coordination and degrading momentum. This pattern track, fix, strike, fragment increasingly defines the counter terrorism campaign in the North-West Operation FANSAN YANMA.

Yet the Katsina airstrike cannot be viewed in isolation. While bandit formations were being degraded from the air, armed groups continued probing vulnerabilities across the wider North-West corridor.

In Niger State’s Borgu axis, dozens of armed men on motorcycles attacked and set parts of a security outpost ablaze before fleeing. Although no casualties were recorded and no weapons lost, the incident carried symbolic weight. It illustrated the persistence of bandit and insurgent-linked elements in targeting state authority, particularly in remote, border-adjacent communities where response times are tested.

That same transnational dynamic was evident in the crash of a NAF drone on farmland in Kontagora. The drone, reportedly on an operational mission, pointed to the intensity and geographic spread of aerial surveillance and strike efforts. While no casualties were recorded, the incident illustrated the risks inherent in sustained high-tempo ISR operations across vast and rugged terrain.

On the ground, bandit violence continues to exact a human and economic toll. In Katsina’s Malumfashi axis, suspected bandits attacked Naino village, killing two residents and injuring six others. Joint security deployments, medical evacuation and blocking operations followed, but the incident reinforced a grim truth: even as air power constrains large-scale movements, smaller cells retain the ability to strike villages with lethal effect.

Similarly, in Katsina border communities near the Niger Republic, bandits rustled cattle and injured residents who attempted to resist them. Livestock theft remains central to the bandit economy, a source of funding, food and leverage over rural populations.

Further south in Kano State, attacks in Shanono and Tsanyawa LGAs revealed another layer of the conflict. In Farin-Fuwa village, bandits engaged responding forces in a gun battle that claimed the life of a soldier. In Tsanyawa, cattle rustlers struck and escaped before security teams arrived. These incidents show how bandit groups oscillate between direct confrontation and economic sabotage, depending on opportunity and resistance.

Zamfara State continues to illustrate the most complex end of the spectrum. In Bukuyyum LGA, armed bandits and elements of the outlawed YANSAKAI group carried out fatal attacks, including the killing of a civilian inside a mosque and the murder of local hunters along rural routes.

At the same time, swift intervention by security forces in another incident prevented the abduction of civilians, drawing attention to the difference timely intelligence and rapid response can make. Ongoing operations by the troops of Operation FANSAN YANMA in the Bukuyyum–Mada axis now focus on tracking fleeing elements, dominating forest corridors and recovering looted arms.

Taken together, these incidents reveal a theatre in transition rather than resolution. Bandit groups are increasingly constrained in their ability to move in large, coordinated formations, largely due to ISR-driven air operations. Yet they remain capable of opportunistic attacks, arson, targeted killings and cattle rustling, particularly in rural and border communities.

The response, correspondingly, is becoming more intelligence-centric. ISR now underpins both air interdiction and ground manoeuvre. Blocking operations, area domination and follow-on patrols increasingly complement strikes from the air, creating cumulative pressure that limits regrouping.

What is unfolding in the North-West is not a single decisive battle, but a campaign of attrition. Air power disrupts, dislocates and degrades. Ground actions deny escape, recover weapons and reassure communities.

Yet, the challenge remains far from over. Bandit networks are fluid, opportunistic and deeply embedded in difficult terrain. Sustaining pressure, maintaining ISR superiority and denying escape routes will be critical in preventing regrouping and retaliatory attacks.

The strategic lesson is clear: sustained dominance requires continuity. Tactical victories, no matter how precise, must be followed by relentless monitoring, cross-state coordination and disruption of the economic lifelines that sustain banditry.

As 2026 unfolds, early indicators suggest that when intelligence leads and force follows decisively, criminal networks pay a heavy price. The challenge ahead lies in sustaining this momentum long enough to convert battlefield success into lasting stability for communities across Katsina, Niger, Kano, Zamfara and the wider North-West region.

Zagazola Makama is a Counter Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in the Lake Chad region.

How ground pressure, air power are reshaping the war against banditry in Nigeria’s North-West