By Lami SADIQ
Thirty-five years ago, Hussaini Isah scraped alluvial gold from the earth of Dan-kamfani, in North-West Nigeria, without looking over his shoulder. Today, he digs deep underground, hunted by fear and surrounded by violence and destruction that have engulfed many parts of Zamfara State.
This gold form Maru is said to be 23karat – high in purity, according to gold dealers at the Gusau Pollo market in Zamfara.
Back in the day, they camped in forests, worked till dawn, and lived off gold mining. “It was a hard job, but it provided our daily living,” he said.
That life has now been disrupted, as armed bandits terrorise gold-rich communities in the North-West and parts of North-Central Nigeria, killing locals and forcing artisanal miners such as Isah into near-slavery.
This gold form Maru is said to be 23karat, high in purity
For years, Nigeria’s North-West region has faced persistent insecurity, driven by bandits who exploit weak governance and porous borders. Initially fuelled by farmer-herder conflicts, these groups have evolved into organised criminal networks heavily reliant on cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom, robbery and extortion to sustain their operations. However, since 2022, the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector has turned into a key source of financing, fuelling large-scale violence and instability and stimulating a demand for firearms and ammunition.
While the Nigerian government has deployed the military to disrupt their activities, bandits often regroup, raze villages, displace hundreds of thousands of people and defy authority. The scale of the violence, as revealed in a joint report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) and ACLED, found that between 2018 and 2023, banditry deaths in Zamfara and Kaduna states reached above 4,758, surpassing fatalities fuelled by violent extremist groups in the country’s northeast region.
Gold, a portable and untraceable source of wealth, offers bandits influence and control. As economic and political instability shakes governments worldwide, the global demand for it as a haven surged to a staggering 4,606.2 metric tons in 2024. In regions like Nigeria, where formal mining oversight is weak, this creates an avenue for bandits to become major players in the sector.
Constitutionally, the Nigerian government has exclusive control over solid minerals, even though the sector contributes less than 1 percent to the national gross national product (GDP). However, revenue has seen a positive rise, with a 16 percent increase from N345.40 billion ($226 million) in 2022 to N401.87 billion ($263 million) in 2023, the highest in a decade, according to an audit report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
Yet experts warn this represents only a fraction of its true potential, as illegal mining continues to bleed government resources.
To formalise the sector and track the flow of Nigeria’s gold, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Dele Alake, announced in July 2025 that over 3,000 artisanal cooperatives had been registered. Alongside this effort, the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI) was launched in 2019, aiming to buy gold from artisanal miners under the National Purchase Programme to ensure revenue is remitted to the government.
But for Isah and many artisanal miners across Anka and Maru in Zamfara, as well as Birnin Gwari in Kaduna, bandit control over mining communities has made these initiatives nearly impossible, leaving huge deposits of gold in the control of non-state actors.
In this investigation, bandit leader, Kachalla Mati, said to be the successor of slain bandit kingpin, Halilu Sububu, boasted of extracting gold worth N300 million ($196,000) weekly. A large part of it is either exchanged for weapons or sold in black markets within the Sahel, and the proceeds, used to procure firearms. The gold eventually ends up in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, which has become the world’s second-largest gold trading hub, and a go-to selling point for Nigeria’s illicit gold. These illicit transactions increase bandits’ influence and access to firearms that spread and sustain instability in northern Nigeria.
Before 2022, there had been little evidence to link armed bandits to the gold mining sector because the intense labour made their involvement unlikely. Moreover, banditry had thrived on cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom, and community levies. But as mass displacements and military action slashed those revenues, bandits turned to artisanal gold mining, taking over major sites and forcing locals to work under their control.
To speak with gold miners, the reporter travelled to Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, where the immediate past governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, once boasted had more gold than South Africa. Incidentally, it is also the epicentre of Kaduna’s banditry.
Journeying through the 126-kilometre stretch to Kaduna-Birnin Gwari highway was laced with anxiety. Not long ago, it was considered one of northern Nigeria’s deadliest routes because it was bandit-infested. However, a peace pact between bandits and government authorities in early 2025 made the road ‘relatively safe.’ Despite this assurance, uncertainty often engulfs road users, especially since peace pacts with bandits have not always been kept.
A few minutes into the often-desolate Kaduna-Birnin Gwari Road that stretches into vast, ungoverned territories, the scale of Nigeria’s prolonged insecurity and widespread displacement was strikingly evident. Haunting traces of abandoned farming communities, such as Unguwar Yako, Tsohuwar Udawa, and Manini, loomed quietly overgrown by shrubs that offer a sobering reminder of the lives that once lived there. Residents had been forced to relocate as a result of constant attacks and abductions by armed bandits.
Due to the pothole-ridden road and limited or non-existent telecommunication services, the journey from Kaduna to Birnin Gwari extends twice as long as the typical one-and-a-half-hour drive. Yet, after three hours, the reporter arrived in the town of Birnin Gwari, a place that has remarkably resisted bandit attacks.
Washing to extract the gold
To meet with artisanal gold miners, the reporter, in the company of local vigilante men, who help fortify the community, travelled the 16km bumpy, untarred road to Bugai mining site. Buzzing with activity, in a wide pit, mud-covered youths were seen working in sync. Shovels in hand, they dug and heaved soil to the edges. Nearby, others washed and processed the freshly dug gold-bearing earth.
“It is our right to mine. This is how we hustle, especially since what we are doing is not illegal,” said a senior artinalsal miner, Mr Mohammed Bello.
The process of washing to extract gold
But Nigeria’s Minerals and Mining Act 2007, which provides requirements for mining, categorises Bello and many of his colleagues as illegal miners since they have no registration with the government.
READ ALSO: Terrorists intensify attacks on food-belt states as Tinubu’s security machine breaks
Bandits had visited that mining site less than 10 months before this interview in May, said Jafar Ibrahim, another miner. He recalled their ultimatum: “Hand over the gold or be killed. We complied, surrendering N2 million ($1,300) worth of gold,” he said. But he acknowledged that bandits’ provocation had declined since the peace pact with the government.
Over 300 kilometres from Birnin Gwari, artisanal gold miners in Maru and Anka of Zamfara State equally depend on the informal sector to survive. For three decades, Isah worked across mining fields in Anka, finding just enough gold to cater for his family. Now working under bandit-controlled fields, he said the gold is dug in large quantities, and the quality appears good.
While gold dealers praise Anka’s gold, they claim it is second in purity to that of Maru, where purity could reach 23 karats and, occasionally, 24k- its purest form. For a smooth business transaction, locals use three measuring units for excavated gold: Percent, digo and gram. ‘Digo’ is a Hausa term that loosely translates to a drop. Gold dealers explained that 10 percent makes up a ‘digo’ while 10 ‘digo’ make up one gram of gold.
At the Pollo Market in Gusau, gold from parts of Nigeria and surrounding African countries is sold.
And so, local dealers often have to pile up gold in little quantities to reach a substantial gram before they move it to bigger selling points, such as the Pollo Market in Gusau, Zamfara State. From there, the gold makes its journey to Abuja and to Dubai. Aliyu Adamu Almajiri, spokesperson for Zamfara’s Gold Buyers and Sellers’ Cooperative, confirmed that gold from the market travels to Dubai and weekly transactions in the market are about N250 million ($164,000); a sharp drop from before the insecurity.
But gold dealers are not the only ones eyeing Dubai. From underground mines, bandit-controlled gold finds its way to global black markets, fuelling a far-reaching terror economy.
Explaining their role, bandit leader Kachalla Mati said gold from his controlled mining fields in Anka is stockpiled for weeks, then smuggled through the Nigeria-Niger border into the Sahel. Through this route, the gold indirectly makes its way to Dubai.
Although less prominent than Sububu, Mati is said to command scattered mining camps in Dan-kamfani, Kawaye, and Duhuwa, operating across the Bagega and Wuya wards of Zamfara’s Anka.
In one of two recorded interviews through an intermediary for this investigation, the bandit leader revealed that he extracts between 40 and 50 solos daily from a single mining site. A solo is a heap of gold-layered sand filled in cement bags. At the first scheduled interview conducted in Hausa, Mati, who was nursing a gunshot wound to the leg, ignored a question about how he sustained the injury but said overall, he makes between N200 million and N300million ($130,000- $196,000) from gold mining weekly. He, however, added that a huge part of the gold is sold outside Nigeria.
Illicit gold supply chain
Pressed for the specific countries, Mati got irritated: “It is not your business where we sell our gold. You want to alert the security agents, right?” After he calmed down, he boasted: “If we want to, we sometimes sell it here (Zamfara), we send our boys, and sometimes people from the city bring the money to us, sometimes, we send it to Dubai.”
Though he did not clarify how the gold journeys from Nigeria to Dubai, SWISSAID’s 2024 report on the trail of African gold shows that a large chunk of Nigeria’s undeclared gold, especially from the ASGM sector, is smuggled out and directly or indirectly ends up in the UAE. The report reveals a wide gap between Nigeria’s declared and non-declared gold production from ASGM, with declared production gauged at 1.96 tonnes in 2022 and non-declared estimated at between 14.3 and 15.6 tonnes per year in the early 2020s.
Gold from Bugai mining site in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State
It further explained that undeclared gold from Nigeria reaches the UAE directly through the airports, while smuggled gold, like that of Mati, makes its way to Dubai through Niger, Togo and Mali.
READ ALSO: Insecurity still a major problem despite Nigerian govt’s claims
Many studies align with this argument, especially since Bamako, Mali’s capital, serves as a major regional hub offering favourable export terms for illicit gold mined around the Sahel – for smuggling to the UAE. Mali hosts around 140 gold trading posts, even though most operate outside formal registration, making it a key gateway for laundering gold into the UAE and into the global supply chain.
The Nigerian government acknowledges this problem and, in 2023, pushed for joint regulations with the UAE to curb illegal trade and boost mutual economic gains.
Across Zamfara and Kaduna states, artisanal miners share a common story: bandits first appeared as curious observers, then gradually seized control of mining fields and forced locals to work. While bandits generally avoid physical labour, Isah said they take control of fields and treat miners like slaves. “They beat us and sometimes shoot to kill,” he said and described working in week-long shifts, with each day yielding heaps of gold-layered sand.
The situation is the same in Maru, where Kabiru Dahiru said some bandits give out entry tickets to miners on shifts. He described the ticket as a piece of paper with the name of the bandit leader written on it. “It provides protection for us against abduction by other bandits. When they see it, they know we are going to work for another bandit, and they let us pass,” he said.
Aerial view of gold mining activities in Zamfara State
But not all bandits are local. Miners often overhear bandit leaders introduce partners from Niger and Burkina Faso who leave mining sites with as many solos as their motorcycles can carry. “If we mine 10 solos, they might spare one to share among 10 of us,” Isah said, “but often,” he added, “their boys could intercept us and seize it.”
Bandits’ interference in the gold mining sector forced artisanal miners to change locations, but often, they see no change in bandits’ tactics.
Jafar Ibrahim, a native of Tsafe in Zamfara, fled to Birnin Gwari, while Ibrahim Lawal and many artisanal miners fled Maganda village of Birnin Gwari but said that in many areas where gold abounds, bandits have a grip on the area.
Lawal, who is the chairman of artisanal miners in Maganda, said in some instances, bandits wait for them to dig, wash, and process, then seize the gold. “Sometimes they ambush us on the road and then move the gold to Farin Ruwa or Nachibi, where they refine it,” he said.
Having fled Maganda, Lawal and many of his colleagues now dig for scrapes through the rocky terrain of Rima, 10 km away from Birnin Gwari town.
But beyond preying on artisanal miners, Ashiru Usman, chairman of artisanal gold miners in Birnin Gwari, explained that gold-rich communities of Maganda, Layin Mai Gwari, Janruwa, Tsohuwar Garin Birnin Gwari, Farin Ruwa, Naccibi, and Saulawa have all been overrun by bandits. “Bandits have made these high-yield sites inaccessible,” he said. “Many miners have now relocated closer to Birnin Gwari town for safety.”
How bandits tighten control
Efforts to conduct one-on-one interviews with artisanal miners in bandit-controlled Bagega and Wuya wards in Anka were frustrated by the high risks. Therefore, five artisanal miners, including Isah, were convinced to travel to Anka town for the interview, but only three showed up.
READ ALSO: Insecurity: Shettima fails to lead military against criminals as promised during 2023 campaign
Nonetheless, on the day of the interview, the 110-kilometre journey from Gusau to Anka was almost suspended after news made rounds that bandits had laid an ambush on the 71-kilometre Maiinchi/Anka route, a corridor that runs through Zuru in Kebbi State. Security advisers described the route as one of Zamfara’s perilous, subject to random attacks due to the existence of several cattle routes frequented by bandits.
It was a Wednesday morning in May, and tension rose sharply after the Kwanan Maiinci Y-turn, which veers travellers off the Gusau–Sokoto Road towards the isolated Maiinchi-Anka road. The desolation offered little reassurance, and for a while, the vehicle went into silence. Every second weighed heavily on the heart, save for the sight of seven scattered checkpoints, manned by armed community vigilante groups.
Roughly 26 kilometres to Anka, a police post became visible, and later, a military checkpoint followed, then finally, a full military formation, which residents said helps fortify the town against bandit infiltration.
Anka town has, in the last eight years, provided refuge for thousands of displaced persons, from nearby villages of Duhuwa, Kawaye, Zakkuwa in Bagega ward, as well as Dan-kamfani, Dorowe, Jakkuka and Kurukuru in Wuya ward. To consolidate control, bandit attacks are often ruthless. Aisha Abubakar, a 35-year-old housewife, recalled how the attack on Dorowe forced out over 3,000 displaced persons who are now taking refuge at the Anka emir’s palace IDP camp.
“They killed about 26 people that day,” she recalled, saying the dead included two of her brothers, four nephews and four brothers-in-law.
It was the same for Rahama Abubakar and Fatima Garba, residents of Kurukuru and Jakkuka villages, who fled their communities alongside hundreds of residents. For those who dared to return, the consequences are often fatal, said Rahama, who recounted a recent killing of seven villagers who returned to assess their maize farms.
Reinforcing the complexity of the situation, the women doubted that the attacks on their communities were linked to the rich deposits of gold buried beneath the earth. “Bandits took over Dan-kamfani and the mines, but the people were allowed to stay and work for them,” disclosed Fatima. “They let them have enough gold to buy food. If they’d asked, we’d equally have stayed willingly.”
Experts align this position to cooperate with bandits in exchange for protection as a tactic employed by non-state armed groups to gain legitimacy among locals and present themselves as protectors.
But even in their perilous circumstances, the spirit of defiance persists among some residents.
This investigation was taken from our partner, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR). It was developed through a mentorship programme with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) and La Cellule Norbert Zongo pour le journalisme d’investigation en Afrique de l’Ouest (CENOZO), as part of the ‘Support to the Mitigation of Destabilising Effects of Transnational Organised Crime (M-TOC)’ project. The M-TOC project is commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and GI-TOC from 2024 to 2025. This article is totally independent and does not necessarily express the views of GI-TOC, CENOZO, GIZ or GFFO.
