Nigerian kidnappers have collected nearly $5.8 \u200bmillion in ransom payments in the last year from civilian abductions, crime that is crippling education and \u200ceroding public trust in the government, a security consultancy said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s SBM Intelligence said 7,825 people were kidnapped between July 2025 and June 2026, up 66% from the year before. At least 1,142 people were killed, and total confirmed \u200bransom payments more than tripled to 7.78 billion naira ($5.79 million), it said.<\/p>\n
The figures were compiled from \u200bmedia reports, interviews and publicly available information, and SBM said they were conservative because \u2060many ransom payments were never disclosed.<\/p>\n
A faction of the Islamist group Boko Haram collected 90% of the \u200brecorded ransom payments from kidnappings in the northeast, but there were more incidents and victims in the northwest, \u200baccording to SBM.<\/p>\n
The findings were released as Nigeria’s president ordered security forces to\u00a0rescue\u00a0as many as 600 civilians kidnapped last week in north-central Niger State.<\/p>\n
The presidency and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
The kidnap-for-ransom \u200bindustry is at the center of Nigeria’s expanding security crisis as gunmen target schools, villages and main \u200broads. Kidnappers, who include heavily armed bandits and Islamist militants, hold their victims for weeks or months until payments are \u200cmade.<\/p>\n
SBM \u2060estimated that Boko Haram, which is known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, received about 7 billion naira, mainly from two mass incidents where over 300 people were seized in each event.<\/p>\n
Some 315 pupils and staff were seized from a school in Papiri, Niger state, in November. Schools remain routinely\u00a0targeted\u00a0over a decade after \u200bBoko Haram’s raid on \u200ba school in Borno’s \u2060Chibok that brought such kidnappings to international attention.<\/p>\n
“School abductions have resurged, with the Papiri attack reviving a tactic whose costs ripple through education, farming and public trust,” \u200bthe SBM report said.<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s security crisis is likely to be a central issue \u200bin the next \u2060elections in January.<\/p>\n
When he came to power three years ago, President Bola Tinubu pledged – like his predecessors – to tackle insecurity but analysts say the recent wave of kidnappings shows the policy has failed to deliver tangible progress.<\/p>\n
“Without \u2060a coordinated \u200bstrategy that targets both the profitability of the crime and its \u200broots, Nigeria risks entrenching kidnapping not merely as a criminal industry but as a funding mechanism for the very groups that most \u200bthreaten its stability,” SBM said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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