Rape, Extortion and Fear: How Armed Groups Control Rural Families

Harvest of Fear: Sexual Violence Tied to Unpaid Extortion, Forced Labor, Movement Control, Document Parallel Government: Expert

By Onibiyo Segun

(ABUJA) – Ishaku’s wife was sexually assaulted in their home while their children watched. An armed man threatened to kill him if he intervened.

“I now sleep outside whenever they come,” Ishaku, whose name has been changed, told TruthNigeria. He said he sometimes fetches water for the armed men and warns them when soldiers approach Birnin Kajuru. The assault has turned a terrorised husband into an unwilling early-warning system for bandit-terrorists.

“Threats against wives and daughters enforce obedience. When armed men threaten sexual assault if a levy is unpaid, the woman’s body is the collateral for obedience,” Dr. Maryam Ibrahim told TruthNigeria in a chat.

“They use it as a tool because it keeps you in fear. It makes you do what they need you to do,” Ibrahim said.

Household Under Armed Control

The pattern extends beyond one family. Alheri Magaji, co-founder of Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative (RADi), told TruthNigeria its Kaduna documentation spans more than eight years. She estimates that a large percentage of Southern Kaduna villages are affected.

A RADi-based TruthNigeria report in August documented testimonies from at least 50 communities in Kajuru and Kachia counties. It described bandit-terrorist control of movement, confiscation of phones and motorcycles, compulsory labour, harvest levies and men forced to ride motorcycles during kidnappings. Local officials confirmed the arrangements in neighbouring communities.

Separate displacement estimates underline the scale. In August, Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union president Tabara Kato told PUNCH more than 100 communities had been displaced; Middle Belt Forum spokesman Luka Binniyat put the figure at 245 as of June 2026. Kato reported 35,402 displaced residents. These are not RADi figures. Figures are estimates that need corroboration by competent investigators.

“RADi’s hospital observations come from field visits and health-worker interviews”, Magaji said. In Zuru, Kebbi St

ate, she described a woman reportedly raped almost daily despite an agreement intended to prevent attacks. “Health workers also encountered young women seeking pregnancy-prevention medication because they feared assault,” Magaji told TruthNigeria.

The consequences follow survivors home. Magaji described a woman abducted twice who became pregnant both times. 

“She gave birth after the second pregnancy; her husband, family and community abandoned her. Girls returning from abduction sometimes find marriage proposals withdrawn”, Magaji mentioned.

She went on to say, “Men refusing levies face threats against wives and daughters; some are forced to farm for armed groups or take guns and attack others.”

 “If they come to your house, and you’re not able to pay the levy that you were demanded, they’ll sleep with your wife, sleep with your daughter,” she said.

Levies Subjugate Regions

Channels television reported that in Kebbe, Sokoto State, armed men sent a farmer with a telephone to the district head and demanded ₦40 million (about $29,700), threatening an attack if unpaid. The phone had to remain charged and reachable. Police said their anti-kidnapping unit was acting on the threat.

In Dnakunda, Shiroro County, Niger State, The Guardian reported that armed men demanded ₦2 million before the December 2022 harvest. A pregnant mother of three was gang-raped by seven men while fleeing and later died.

A separate attack occurred in August 2026. Activist Abigail Sarki told TruthNigeria reported another pregnant mother of three was gang-raped by seven armed men after residents began fleeing a separate ₦2 million levy. She later died. It was a different woman and incident.

In Zamfara, HumAngle reported that in July 2021 armed men led by Alin Fade gave Gwalli Ward women a choice: submit to assault or risk seeing their husbands and relatives murdered.

Fear: Tool of Criminal Governance

Prof. Charles Akise calls levies a way for armed groups to test and enforce authority. “This is not indiscipline, this is doctrine,” he told TruthNigeria. The Kebbe telephone- and payment demand, amounted to a parallel government: “we tax you, we communicate through you, we command you,” Akise told TruthNigeria.

“The armed group does not need to occupy them with fighters. Fear occupies them,” Akise added. Payments, labour, intelligence and sexual violence make residents serve the group and fear resistance.

 Other analysts call the system “shield community” control: residents are compelled to pay, provide information and assist armed operations. Sexual violence targets the family and silences whole communities, according to Prof. Murphy Mohammed. 

“When armed groups can threaten a woman’s body to command a household, they are exercising power over an entire community,” Mohammed told TruthNigeria.

“Sexual violence used to enforce levies and control should be prosecuted as a systematic crime, a weapon of war and terrorism,” Mohammed went on to say.  He called for permanent protection, safe communication, supervised vigilantes and survivor support.

The consensus of experts interviewed is that  a village is not secure while armed men decide who works, who moves, who pays and whose body can be violated.

Onibiyo Segun reports on terrorism and conflict for TruthNigeria.

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