The Nigerian Defence Headquarters confirmed that a new terror group named Lakurawa has emerged in Nigeria and is operating in the Northwest region of the country.
Spokesman of Defence Media Operation (DMO), Major General Edward Buba, who broke the news during a press briefing in Abuja, said the terrorists are not of Nigerian origin but have majorly been operating in Northern Sokoto and Kebbi States. He also assured Nigerians that the military has intensified its operations and will flush out the terrorists to ensure the safety of the people.
Lakurawa is a fate-based terrorist group that shares similar beliefs with Boko Haram, and just like the dreadful group that has terrorized Nigeria’s Northeast for years, Lakurawa seeks to uphold the teachings of Islam wherever it is. Since they set up base, they have tried to impose Sharia law in the communities where they operate.
Shortly after their arrival, the jihadists who were said to hail from two African countries, Algeria and Mali, established what seems to be like a colony or an empire with strict adherence to Islamic ideology.
The terrorists are not from Nigeria. They are a cross-border terror group whose members come from Mali, Algeria, and Niger. They gained entrance into Nigeria through the borders it shared with the two mentioned countries, and this was only possible due to weakened border security, caused by the coup in Niger Niger Republic.
In a story account by Vanguard online, The Malian jihadists were also reported to engage in the struggle to establish a training base for hard-line Islamic fundamentalism in the area.
The feature by Vanguard disclosed that As far back as 2018, it was discovered that the group had commenced operations in Gongono Forest, Tangaza Local Government Area.
During the group’s first encounter with security agents in the densely populated forest in Gongono, many extremists were killed, after which the jihadists’ flag was recovered.
Before now, Niger, along with other countries in the Lake Chad Basin (Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria) were part of a Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) that worked closely to fight terrorism in the area, but a coup affected their operations. How? In July 2023, factions in Niger’s military overthrew the government of the country and suspended its constitution. To pressure the military to back down and restore democratic government, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which Niger belongs, imposed some sanctions on the country and suspended it from the regional bloc. As a result of this, Niger pulled out of the MJTF, and this led to weakened border security which gave the Lakurawa terrorists a way in.
The terror group has been in Nigeria before now; As far back as 2018, they were reportedly invited by some communities to help with their bandit problem. Lakurawa came in, fought off the bandits, and restored some calm in the communities but settled down and attempted to impose Sharia law on the locals instead of returning to their countries– things remained that way until the Nigerian military and the Department of State Services (DSS) conducted a joint operation in 2019 that sent them packing.
There is no consensus as to when Lakurawa re-entered Nigeria again, but the earliest mention of the group by the media can be traced back to July 2023 thanks to a complaint by Sani Yakubu, a lawmaker representing Tangaza/Gudu Federal Constituency of Sokoto State in the House of Representatives.
During a plenary session, Yakubu complained that both local bandits and the Lakurawa terrorist group were terrorizing his constituency and that swift intervention was needed. “The Lakurawa, who claimed to be jihadists from Niger, Mali, and Libya, and the local Bandits terrorizing the area. The two used to be sworn enemies, but have now joined forces, making it more difficult for the deployed security operatives to address the insecurity in the general area,” Yakubu said.
The terrorist group has caused harm in the communities they penetrated. According to accounts given to BBC Hausa Service and Daily Trust, the Lakurawa terrorist group has done the following since they began their operations:
•They have beat up young people who shave their beards, have on a different hairstyle, or listen to music.
•They fought, defeated, and indoctrinated local bandits and have become one with them
•They collect religious taxes from locals and punish those who refuse to pay by seizing their cows
•They have robbed locals of their money and some other belongings
•They have offered some young people the sum of 1 million to join their operation.
Eyewitness accounts of locals in Sokoto suggest that they have sophisticated weapons, use drones, and conduct coordinated attacks against government officials.
The Nigerian Defence Headquarters says they were only able to gain grounds in the communities because they started off by defending communities against bandits and were, as a result, accommodated by locals who assumed the group had good intentions for them. Locals initially accommodated them, thinking they had good intentions for them.
