Bandits and terrorists abducted nearly 8,000 Nigerians during the year that ended in June 2026, an indication that kidnapping has grown into a devastating and profitable industry.
“Both the tempo and the lethality of the crisis have risen sharply,” SBM Intelligence researchers wrote in their report, “The Capture of Nigeria’s Kidnap Economy.”
SBM Intelligence’s analysis found that the families of abductees paid nearly $6 million to rescue their loved ones between June 2025 and June 2026, about 34% of the total ransom demanded during that period.
Compared to the period from June 2024 to June 2025, the number of kidnapping victims has risen more than 60% while specific incidents have jumped at about the same rate, reaching 1,411 in the most recent analysis. Ransom payments jumped sevenfold, however.
The government officially bans ransom payments in an attempt to starve terrorists and other violent groups of the cash they need to buy weapons and fund their operations. However, desperate families often pay, sometimes voicing a lack of trust in security forces to rescue abductees.
“This is one of the strongest features of the kidnapping economy,” analyst Goktug Caliskan wrote recently for African Arguments. “The state’s security deficit and the family’s desperation converge at the same point. Armed groups turn the gap between the two into money.”
The great majority of kidnappings were in Nigeria’s northern regions. The Northwest, which is hard-hit by banditry and a growing influence from terrorist groups in Niger, reported nearly 4,800 victims during the 12 months ending in June 2026. Zamfara and Sokoto states accounted for more than 3,000 of those victims.
“Across the North, kidnapping is run by syndicated bandit and jihadist groups capable of fielding sizeable militias,” SBM Intelligence analysts wrote. “In vast rural areas, these formations are strong enough to hold ground and govern in the state’s absence.”
While the largest number of victims were in the northwest, Boko Haram in northeastern Borno State received 90% of the ransoms paid during the study period from two events that ransomed 731 victims for a total of $5.2 million. Boko Haram is notorious for the 2014 mass abduction of 276 teenaged girls from a school in the community of Chibok.
“School abductions have resurged, with the [November 2025] Papiri attack reviving a tactic whose costs ripple through education, farming and public trust,” SBM Intelligence analysts wrote.
The Papiri attack targeted 303 students and 12 teachers at a Catholic school in Niger State. The same week as the Papiri abductions, kidnappers attacked homes in Zamfara State, a school in Kebbi State school, and a church in Kwara State, capturing dozens of people at each site.
“Kidnapping in Nigeria is moving beyond a fragmented activity in which individual criminals extort money and is turning into an economy with its own financing, bargaining system, target selection and expectation of recurring revenue,” Caliskan wrote. He said the economics of mass abductions guarantee that even if the amount of money received for each abductee is low, the total amount can add up quickly.
While family members often pay ransoms, payment is no guarantee that they will get their family members back, SBM Intelligence wrote.
“In at least six cases, victims were killed after ransom was paid,” the researchers noted. “Ransom-bearers are increasingly being abducted themselves.”
Nigeria’s federal government has stepped up its efforts to disrupt kidnappings and to rescue abductees. About four months after the Papiri abductions, security forces arranged the release of 230 students and teachers still in captivity after others had escaped.
Rescues don’t always go so smoothl. Of the 1,142 people killed during confrontations between security forces and kidnappers, 78% were civilians. Kidnappers may kill their victims even after receiving the ransom or victims may be caught in the crossfire between kidnappers and security forces.
“Kidnapping for ransom continues to be a deadly business for nearly all participants,” SBM Intelligence analysts wrote.