Economics
Bandits Target Nigeria’s Farmers and Threaten Food Security
Organized crime, floods, and drought are hitting agriculture just when the African nation needs it most.
Hausa-Fulani pastoralists on the move while grazing cattle on the outskirts of Sokoto, Nigeria, in 2019.
Photographer: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty ImagesJust before the start of crop planting in May, Abdullahi Hassan Wagini visited a neighbor’s farm in northern Nigeria to discuss how to prepare the fields. What happened next led him to abandon his livelihood of 25 years.
As the two men were chatting, bandits on motorcycles opened fire on them. Wagini, 62, managed to flee, while his friend stayed behind to protect his cattle. He was found dead in a pool of blood, his cows gone.