Zamfara, Sokoto, Borno lead Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis as 7,825 victims recorded in one year

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Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis remained heavily concentrated in the northern part of the country over the 12 months to June 2026, with Zamfara, Sokoto and Borno accounting for a significant share of the 7,825 people abducted nationwide.

Data contained in SBM Intelligence’s August 2026 report, The Capture of Nigeria’s Kidnap Economy, showed that 1,411 kidnapping incidents were recorded across Nigeria between July 2025 and June 2026.

The figures highlight the uneven nature of the country’s security challenge, with northern states accounting for the overwhelming majority of reported victims.

Zamfara emerged as the state most affected, recording 1,921 victims from 236 incidents. The figure represents almost one-quarter of all kidnapping victims recorded across the country during the period.

Sokoto followed with 1,157 victims from 179 incidents, while Borno ranked third with 892 victims from just 55 incidents.

Kaduna occupied the fourth position with 814 victims across 134 incidents, while Katsina recorded 559 victims from 187 incidents.

Other states among the 10 most affected were Niger with 496 victims, Kogi with 412, Kwara with 265, Kebbi with 216 and Benue with 145 victims.

Zamfara records highest number of victims

Zamfara’s position at the top of the ranking underscores the severity of the kidnapping problem in the Northwest.

The state recorded 236 incidents during the period, while only four anti-kidnap operations were recorded. It also recorded 211 civilian deaths, three reported deaths among kidnappers and 10 security personnel killed.

Sokoto, which ranked second, recorded 166 civilian deaths alongside its 1,157 kidnapping victims. The state also experienced 76 mass-abduction incidents involving 974 victims.

Borno, despite recording fewer incidents than several other states, had 892 victims. The state also recorded 24 civilian deaths and 13 security-agent deaths.

The report said Borno recorded the largest single ransom payment during the period, following the abduction of 416 people in Ngoshe, for which N5 billion was reportedly paid.

Kaduna records high number of kidnappers killed

Kaduna recorded 814 kidnapping victims across 134 incidents and conducted 24 anti-kidnap operations during the period.

The state recorded 130 civilian deaths, while security forces reportedly killed 74 kidnappers — the highest number among the states featured in the report.

Katsina, meanwhile, recorded 559 victims across 187 incidents, making it the state with the second-highest number of kidnapping incidents after Zamfara.

The state also recorded 25 anti-kidnap operations, one fewer than Benue, which recorded the highest number at 26.

Kidnapping remains overwhelmingly a northern problem

The geographical distribution of the figures provides a stark picture of Nigeria’s insecurity challenge.

The three northern geopolitical zones — Northwest, Northeast and North-Central — accounted for 7,334 of the 7,825 kidnapping victims recorded nationwide, representing 93.7% of the total.

The Northwest alone recorded 4,771 victims from 680 incidents, making it the country’s principal kidnapping hotspot.

The Northeast followed with 1,497 victims from 211 incidents, while the North-Central recorded 1,066 victims across 309 incidents.

The South recorded considerably fewer victims. The Southwest accounted for 236 victims, the South-South recorded 192, while the Southeast had 63 victims.

SBM Intelligence attributed the significant regional disparity partly to the presence of armed groups in the North and the region’s extensive rural terrain, forests and difficult-to-police areas that can provide hiding places for criminal groups and locations for holding abductees.

Mass abductions account for nearly 80% of victims

Another major feature of the data was the prevalence of mass kidnappings.

Nigeria recorded 396 mass-abduction incidents during the period, involving 6,222 victims. This means mass abductions accounted for approximately 79.5% of all kidnapping victims recorded nationwide.

The Northwest alone accounted for 267 of those incidents, representing 67.4% of the national total.

The figures suggest that the country’s kidnapping challenge is increasingly characterised not only by isolated abductions but also by large-scale attacks capable of taking dozens or even hundreds of people at once.

Kidnap economy generates billions in ransom

Beyond the human cost, the report also highlighted the financial dimension of Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis.

Kidnappers demanded an estimated N22.86 billion in ransom between July 2025 and June 2026, while N7.78 billion was reportedly paid.

Although total ransom demands declined from N48 billion in the previous period, actual ransom payments increased significantly from N2.56 billion.

The data also showed a substantial concentration of ransom payments among terrorist groups. The Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram was reported to have accounted for N7.0015 billion, or about 90% of the ransom payments recorded during the period.

The latest figures reinforce the scale of Nigeria’s kidnapping economy and the continuing security challenge facing communities, travellers, schools and businesses, particularly across the northern states.

With thousands of victims recorded within a single year and billions of naira changing hands through ransom payments, the data points to kidnapping remaining a major security and economic concern for Nigeria.