The death toll from Thursday’s violent clash between bandits and illegal gold miners in Kaduna State has climbed to 17, according to an updated security report cited by AFP.
The confrontation erupted in the Birnin Gwari district — a mineral-rich but volatile area long plagued by banditry — after a notorious bandit leader allegedly stormed an illegal mining site and extorted gold from miners at gunpoint.
Infuriated miners retaliated, killing the gang leader on the spot. His comrades quickly mounted a bloody reprisal attack, storming the mining site and killing seven miners, the report stated.
Later that day, the assailants launched a second assault on Layin Danauta village, killing nine residents, wounding 13 others, kidnapping several people, and razing homes and shops in the process.
Birnin Gwari — once one of the most dangerous parts of Kaduna — had experienced a marked decline in attacks since the peace pact brokered in November last year between local communities and armed groups. However, Thursday’s violence has raised fears that the fragile truce could unravel.
“We have been enjoying relative peace since the agreement was signed, but this latest violence could destroy it,” resident Muhammad Kabir told AFP, confirming both the killing of the bandit leader and the retaliatory raid on Layin Danauta.
The district, which sits at the crossroads of Kaduna, Zamfara, and Niger states, has since 2021 become a hotspot for both bandits and members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru jihadist faction, who reportedly forged an alliance and now enforce a harsh interpretation of Sharia law in parts of the region.
Although the bandits are primarily driven by financial motives rather than ideology, their collaboration with jihadist elements has increasingly alarmed Nigerian security officials.
Following the peace agreement, traditional sources of income for the armed groups — such as kidnapping and extorting farming communities — declined sharply. As a result, many turned to illegal gold mining sites as new revenue streams, the UN-linked security report noted.
The report also warned that the recent violence could trigger a renewed wave of instability across Birnin Gwari, jeopardizing months of fragile peace and potentially reigniting the region’s cycle of conflict.
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