Thousands of Nigerians fled their homes in the country’s northwest this week after the leader of an armed gang threatened to kill anyone who remained following a security raid, officials and residents said on Wednesday.
The threat was issued by Bello Turji, an alleged gang leader operating in Sokoto state, after he accused residents of the Tidibale community of tipping off security forces ahead of recent military operations in the area.
According to residents and local officials, Turji ordered the entire community to leave within days. He reportedly returned to Tidibale earlier this week and killed three people to enforce the warning.
“He told them that if anyone was still there when he came back, they would be killed,” said Basharu Altine Guyawa, Sokoto state coordinator of the Movement for Social Justice and Good Governance. “He said he would not spare even a chicken.”
Officials say Turji leads one of several armed gangs that have terrorised parts of predominantly Muslim northwestern Nigeria, carrying out killings, kidnappings and mass abductions of residents, farmers, students and motorists for ransom.
The escalating violence has drawn international attention, with U.S. President Donald Trump accusing Nigeria’s government of failing to prevent the killing of Christians. Nigerian authorities reject those claims, saying armed gangs and militant groups target both Muslims and Christians and that there is no systematic persecution.
Islamist militant groups, including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram, are also active in the broader region, where an insurgency has persisted for more than 15 years. Last month, the United States carried out a strike against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria.
A Sokoto police spokesperson said residents were fleeing Tidibale out of fear of further attacks and that additional police units had been deployed to the area.
Local authorities have begun evacuating civilians by truck to Isa, about 50 km away. Muhammad Ibrahim, secretary of the community security committee in Isa, said more than 3,000 people had been relocated, with many sheltering in schools.
“There is a humanitarian crisis,” Ibrahim said. “Educational activities have stopped.”
Tidibale lies roughly 100 km east of the state capital, Sokoto. Local activists warn that dozens of villages have been abandoned in recent weeks as violence by armed gangs intensifies across Nigeria’s northwest.
“The past three weeks were horrific,” said Usman Musa, a father of 15 who fled to Isa. “Killings and abductions have continued. The government has ignored us. We want these bandits flushed out.”
