Deadly Gold Rush: Bandits and the Mining Fields of Northwest Nigeria
By Sani Saidu Muhammad
Introduction: Blood Gold
The Pits of Desperation
Across Nigeria’s northwest, Gold no longer means fortune. It means fear, blood, and silence. In the forests of Birnin Gwari and the valleys of Zamfara, bandits have replaced government. Gold has replaced governance. The ground is rich, but the people are poor, trapped in a cycle of violence powered by raw ore.
Living Under the Gun: Miners and Bandits
Haruna Kabiru: The Miner Who Digs in Fear
I met Haruna Kabiru on a scorching afternoon. His face was streaked with sweat and dust as he staggered out of a shallow pit, empty-handed. “We dig because we’re hungry,” he said. “But every dig might be the last.” His village, once full of children and chatter, now sits abandoned. It is just another ghost settlement among hundreds. Over 200,000 people have been displaced. Many who once farmed or mined peacefully now dig in fear, forced deeper into the pits by the violence of armed bandits.
Here, mining is not a job. It is a gamble with death. Every sack of gold feeds a pipeline of crime stretching from these pits to vaults in Dubai. Armed groups run the mines. Corrupt security agents protect the smugglers. Politicians stay silent. This investigation traces how desperation in Nigeria’s northwest fuels an international network of violence and profit. It reveals how men like Haruna are trapped in its grip.
From Zamfara to Birnin Gwari village under Kaduna, illegal gold diggings have been Areas with violence and exploitation. Armed “bandits” – criminal gunmen, often ex-herders turned terrorists – extort miners, seize ore, and sell gold to fund arms.
The Health Toll: Lead Poisoning and Children’s Lives
The Children of Lead and The Killing Dust
More than 400 children died of acute lead poisoning when villagers unknowingly ground lead-rich ore into their homes for processing.In remote communities like Bagega and Yargalma in Zamfara State, artisanal miners crushed gold-bearing rocks inside family compounds using grinding stones and crude machines. The ore, heavily contaminated with lead, released fine toxic dust that spread across homes. The dust settled on floors, cooking areas, food, and clothing.. Infants crawled and played on contaminated ground. Children breathed the air thick with lead particles and swallowed the poison while eating or drinking. Wells and ponds near the processing sites were also polluted, turning basic survival into slow poisoning. . Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC confirmed that in some villages, 100 percent of children tested had lead levels far beyond safe limits. Many died before help arrived. The survivors, in most cases, suffered long-term neurological and physical damage.
Now, widespread illegal mining continues to bankroll the same armed networks that terrorize these communities. Armed groups extract “protection fees,” seize ore, and traffic gold to buyers beyond Nigeria’s borders. A Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime investigation describes how this criminal gold economy sustains violent groups and fuels insecurity.
In 2019, the Nigerian government banned Gold mining in Zamfara after discovering that profits from the trade were funding armed banditry. The policy, aimed at curbing violence, instead deepened it. Once the ban took effect, licensed companies, traders, and banks pulled out, leaving mining sites unregulated and unprotected. Security forces also withdrew, creating a vacuum that armed groups quickly filled. Bandits took control of the abandoned pits, extorted local miners, and turned the Goldfields into strongholds. What began as a security measure ended up strengthening the very networks it sought to dismantle.
With no income, thousands of artisanal miners—including children—returned to the pits, this time under the control of bandits who imposed harsh levies, forced labor, and violent punishment for defiance. Gunmen began operating as mine managers, extorting gold and using profits to buy weapons. The black market for gold thrived.
The result was catastrophic. According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), violent deaths in Zamfara rose by 183 percent within a year of the ban. The government’s action unintentionally pushed mining underground, stripping communities of legal income and driving desperate villagers to work for armed groups that had taken over the abandoned sites. With full control of the goldfields, bandits expanded their operations, using profits from illegal mining to buy weapons, recruit fighters, and fund mass kidnappings. What was meant to stop bloodshed, instead gave bandits the money and power to unleash even greater violence..
Timeline of Mining-Related Attacks (2020–2025)
The verified timeline of mining-related attacks Reports (2020–2025) from Reuters, Premium Times, Daily Trust, Amnesty International, and HumAngle.
Criminal Networks: From Bandit Camps to Gold Markets
Amina’s Loss
Amina Abubakar, a mother of four in Maru village, Zamfara State, watched helplessly as her 13 year-old son was trapped in a collapsed artisanal mine shaft. The boy had been working there without her knowledge, drawn by promises of quick money from older miners. Rescuers pulled him out hours later with severe spinal injuries. He survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Amina said she had no idea her child had joined the mine. “I only found out when they came to tell me he was buried underground,” she recalled. The family could not afford treatment. Today, the boy depends entirely on his mother for mobility. Like many children in mining communities, he had been lured into the pits controlled by armed groups that use child labor to extract gold. Bandits often force or entice minors to work under dangerous conditions, paying them little or nothing. For many families caught between poverty and fear, the line between survival and exploitation has disappeared.
Her story is one of many in a region where children risk their lives daily in unstable, unregulated mines. Families often remain unaware until tragedy strikes.
She added that her family had no choice but to return to the mines. “We used to farm,” she said, “but last season we harvested nothing. The soil is dry, and the rains no longer come.”
With no crops and no income, mining is the only way to survive, even if it poisons them. The soil is dry, and the rains no longer come.” Like many others, her family’s farmland had also become unsafe due to repeated attacks by armed bandits who burned crops, stole livestock, and forced farmers to flee. With their livelihoods destroyed and climate change worsening the drought, many displaced families turned to artisanal mining as their only means of survival — even though most mines are now controlled or taxed by armed groups.
But survival comes at a cost. The fine dust stirred by digging and crushing ore seeps into homes, food, and lungs. In many villages, it carries high levels of lead and other toxins. Doctors have linked this dust to seizures, brain damage, and death among children.
In Zamfara and parts of Niger and Kebbi, public health experts call it “the killing dust.” It is invisible yet lethal, the unseen price of Nigeria’s unregulated gold rush. A joint investigation by Human Rights Watch and the CDC confirmed that lead-contaminated dust from artisanal gold mining was responsible for one of the world’s worst environmental health disasters in Zamfara, killing over 400 children and affecting thousands more.Across Zamfara’s mining communities, years of unregulated gold extraction have left behind a toxic legacy. When miners crush gold-bearing rocks, they unknowingly release lead-rich dust into the air and soil. The particles settle on homes, crops, and water sources, turning entire villages into invisible hazard zones. During processing, families often wash ore near streams or grind rocks inside their compounds, further spreading contamination. Experts say this is how lead entered the food chain and continues to poison people long after mining stopped in some areas.
In the villages of Zamfara, the legacy of lead is still deadly. Children play near rust-stained mine pits, unaware that the fine dust in the air contains toxic lead.
Cross-Border Laundering: The Dubai Connection
Renowned Dubai Gold Souq
“The gold here is our curse,”says Ibrahim Dan Tsauri, a weathered artisanal miner in Zamfara who agreed to speak openly..
He pauses to rest from breaking rocks. “Every morning I wake up wondering if this will be my last day.”
Across Nigeria’s Northwest, miners are not protected by the state. Instead, they rely on armed vigilante groups — young men from the community, often unpaid, who pledge loyalty to local emirs or traditional leaders. In places like Gobirawa Chali, villagers contributed money to hire 15 of these local guards to secure their pit. Five of them were killed during an ambush in April 2023, when suspected bandits raided the site, looting gold and burning nearby homes. The attack left at least 20 villagers dead, according to residents and local media reports.
Vigilantes are not the only ones wielding power. Armed bandit groups, once content with collecting protection money, now control parts of the mining trade. In Zamfara and Kaduna, they have become miners, traders, and tax collectors. They seize pits, force locals to dig, and demand levies from gold smugglers moving the product across borders. What began as community self-defense has evolved into parallel regimes of violence, where the lines between protector and predator often blur.
“When the bandits come, everything stops. They demand a cut before you can work,” says Umar, an artisanal miner in Birnin Gwari. His shoulders slump. “If we resist, they will shoot.”
Umar’s story is one of many. Across Zamfara, Birnin Gwari, and Niger States, farmers and miners say they are routinely forced to pay “protection” levies or surrender raw gold to heavily armed gangs. Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) and security analysts have warned that many of these armed groups are composed of former pastoralists who have turned to criminal enterprise. They operate like occupying forces, taxing villagers and seizing control of natural resources.
These groups have grown more sophisticated. Some now run entire mining operations. A 2022 report by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) described notorious gang leader Halilu Sububu as one of the key warlords who “controlled mining sites” in Zamfara. The report documented how his gang used abducted villagers as forced laborers, compelling them to dig for gold under the barrel of a gun.
Smaller gangs, lacking the resources to run full operations, focus on extorting artisanal miners. Victims told us they are forced to hand over 30 to 40 percent of every bag of ore as “tax” or risk being attacked or expelled from the mining site.
In Fakai (Zamfara), miners recall nightly knockings on their tin huts. “They said, ‘We want half of today’s gold before dawn or you die,’” remembers Amina, 34, who lives near an illegal pit. Late one night in December, the miners refused. The bandits opened fire at point-blank range. Amina’s husband and two friends died instantly. She now trudges daily to the mine with her three children, each pickaxe blow echoing with dread.
Experts Weigh In
“We have recovered thousands of kids from these villages,” says Asiya Ahmad, a UNICEF-trained nurse, seated on a wooden bench outside a crowded health post in Anka. “Even with chelation medicine, many will never fully recover. Lead can damage minds permanently.”
Chelation therapy involves administering drugs that bind to heavy metals in the bloodstream, allowing the body to excrete them through urine. But this process only removes the metal. It cannot undo the neurological damage already caused by prolonged exposure.
Inside the clinic, the consequences are visible. Children stumble while walking or stare blankly with unfocused eyes. Some are seven years old and cannot speak. Others cannot hold a spoon or follow simple commands. Their parents carry photos of the past of once-healthy children, now replaced by what looks like permanent disability.
“We treat the symptoms,” Ahmad says, “but the real problem is still in the dust, the water, the air. They are poisoned before they can even speak their first word.”
Dr Kabir Ishak in Zamfara explained that the situation worsens once treated children return home. “We treat them here, but the minute they go home, it starts again”. Another community physician, Dr. Ibrahim Musa, based in Zamfara said that he sees children’s ill health every day.
“We see it every day. A child comes in listless and convulsing. We draw blood, and it’s three or four times the safety level. It’s a hidden epidemic – no one sees this poison, but it kills”, he noted.
Medical data reveal a dire public health crisis. Beyond violence, unregulated gold mining has left lasting harm in northern Nigeria. Soil and water tests in Zamfara show lead levels far above safe limits. Many children have never been screened, yet the scars of the 2010 lead poisoning outbreak remain visible.
According to a joint investigation by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and TerraGraphics Environmental Engineering, over 2,500 children in seven Zamfara villages were found with life-threatening blood lead levels during the crisis’
“These were not just statistics. These were children who could no longer walk, talk, or feed themselves,” said Aliyu Musa, a local health worker who participated in the emergency response. “We cleaned up the worst-hit villages, but the mining continued elsewhere. The danger is still here.”
Broken Communities, Broken Dreams
In Maraban Giwa, a Mining community under Birnin Gwari in Kaduna, dreams lie broken and the area lies deserted. Yusuf Hamisu, was half-sleeping under a shade in his home village, guarding a farm.
The 14-year old boy carried a sack of ore for a gold deal when this reporter met him in their Maraban Giwa village. His family had fled the community due to fear of terrorist attack but he remains fearless digging gold to meet his daily income.
“I miss going to school,” he said. “The teachers told us that as long as the bandits are here, the doors will stay locked.”
In many villages across Anka, the villagers mine to survive, digging a trench of no less than 15 feet all filled with little children like Hamisu, scraping for grams of gold.
Hadiza Lawal, who agreed to speak on record as she pursues justice, lost her husband to a bandit attack in Zamfara. Months later, her teenage son joined illegal mining in Barayar Zaki to sustain the family. One evening, armed men stormed the site and took him into the forest. She has not seen him since.
She says, “My son (Ibrahim Lawal) was 14 when he joined them. “They said it was the only way we could eat. That same month, he never came back. Bandits took him. Hadiza now cares for her younger children alone. They live in a temporary shelter near Anka, surviving on food aid and the little money she earns selling firewood.
Nigeria’s forests in Zamfara and Kaduna have effectively been carved into fiefdoms controlled by powerful bandit leaders. Ali Kachalla, also known as Ali Kawaje, ran a camp near Birnin Gwari and is suspected of orchestrating the 2021 abduction of students from Federal University, Gusau. He also allegedly coordinated with jihadi group Ansaru in attacks on military convoys. Dogo Giɗe, born Abubakar Abdullahi of Maru, Zamfara State, has taken control of several mining routes and is linked to mass kidnappings, cattle rustling, and the 2023 downing of a military helicopter in Shiroro. These warlords impose “taxes” on miners and farmers, enforce forced labor, and even run their own gold trading networks—all while the state remains absent.
Hadiza explained that bandits now permit mining only under their control, taking a share of the gold in exchange for protection or weapons. She added that some local politicians and security officials benefit from the trade, accepting payoffs to ignore the activities that keep the cycle of violence alive.
A vigilante leader in Anka, speaking anonymously, claims security officials escort gold-laden trucks from mining pits and sometimes take payment in cash or gold. Multiple traders corroborated seeing convoys pass checkpoints unchecked.
Independent investigations lend weight to this: A Reuters special report describes corrupt officials aiding gold-trafficking networks. GI-TOC studies show that artisanal gold mining is one of the core revenue streams for bandits working with or tolerated by officials. Research on illicit economies in West Africa also draws connections between weak regulation, state actor collusion, and the rise of criminal gold networks.
Laila Abdulkadir, a widow and mother of five, knelt by the grave of her husband. He was shot and killed when armed bandits opened fire during a raid on the mining site where he worked. “He left us hungry,” she said, holding her children close, “and now even God’s dust won’t let us live.”
When Banditstake over a community, they often impose their own rule. They tax miners, extort families, and sometimes demand young women as part of what they call “tolls.” These women are subjected to forced marriages, sexual violence, or domestic servitude. Fatima (Not Real Name), one such victim, was abducted from her village and held for weeks before managing to escape captivity. Her account mirrors others gathered from survivors in Anka and Maru, where local NGOs report a rising pattern of gender-based violence tied to armed group control.
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The teenage girl who is still haunted by memories of her abduction. According to her, she was held hostage for a week before escaping from their hunts when the military raided the forest.
“They said I belonged to the mine, now,” she says quietly, eyes downcast. “I don’t know what that means, but I was terrified.”
Malam Adamu, a local hunter in Birnin Gwari, said “We used to trade maize and cattle here. Now if you don’t pay the bandits’ tax on your small farm, they burn your house. Every month someone must pay or die.”
Women and elders describe how bandits impose “protection levies” on farmers and miners alike, or raze fields if families cannot pay.
One of the victims,Alhaji Habu dogon Dawa, recalls how hundreds of miners ran when a bandit Leader came and said he wanted half their gold. Refusing meant public execution. The toll is evident: whole communities have emptied out of outlying valleys, their markets shuttered.
Criminal Networks: From Bandit Camps to Gold Markets
The deadly link between gold and violence has turned Zamfara and Birnin Gwari into battlegrounds where armed factions fight for control of mine sites and trade routes. Some are splinter factions of bandits, while others are vigilantes who have evolved into profit-seeking militias. They tax miners, guard illegal pits, and sell protection to smugglers.
At several mine clusters in Anka and Bukkuyum, army checkpoints stand beside illegal pits where extraction continues openly. Soldiers often claim they are there to prevent attacks, but interviews with miners and traders suggest a more complex relationship. Security operatives sometimes collect informal levies or protection fees to allow trucks to move freely. In other instances, local vigilantes accuse them of escorting gold shipments out of conflict zones. A senior security analyst who monitors illicit mining in the Northwest told ENACT Africa that the line between “state protection” and “state participation” has blurred in many mining belts.
Each intercepted shipment of illicit gold points to a chain of coercion and violence. Miners, many of them displaced villagers, are often forced to dig under duress, with armed groups taking a percentage of every bag of ore. The gold then travels through territories controlled by these same groups before reaching traders who move it to markets in Sokoto or across Niger and Togo borders.
According to ENACT Africa, illegal mining revenues finance arms purchases, bandit logistics, and cattle rustling operations across Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna. The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) estimates that Nigeria lost over US $900 million to mineral smuggling between 2016 and 2018—funds that could have bolstered local governance, security response, and economic recovery. In states like Zamfara, this revenue loss has deepened the vacuum of state control, leaving entire districts governed by armed factions rather than local authorities.
The term “gold convoy” is used locally to describe the series of trucks or motorcycles that move raw gold ore or processed gold dust from remote mine sites to trading hubs. These convoys are occasionally seized by either bandits or security forces, depending on who dominates a particular route. When bandits intercept them, it is to assert territorial control or collect tribute. When state forces do, it is usually presented as an anti-smuggling operation, though sources allege that some of the seized gold later re-enters the black market through official channels.
Every intercepted convoy of gold is more than just contraband. It is a trace of a violent economy where poverty, coercion, and complicity have converged to create a parallel system of profit and power.
From the Other Side: Bandits Speak
An analysis of Nigeria’s criminal networks shows a shift from petty cattle theft to more organized control of illegal gold mining. Several bandit leaders now operate mines or collect forced levies from miners, creating a violent but structured economy.
“Mining gold brings easier money than kidnapping,” says “Yakubu,” a 34-year-old former miner turned low-level enforcer —a term used locally for foot soldiers who collect taxes from miners, guard gold convoys, and punish those who resist paying tribute. He spoke to this reporter through an intermediary, using vague phrases and euphemisms to avoid detection or retaliation.
“We fight, but ultimately we need the money. We control the sites; the government won’t come here”, Yakubu said.
From the Other Side: Bandits Speak
Yakubu, a self-acknowledged member of a bandit faction operating around the Dansadau–Anka mining corridor in Zamfara State, says he works under a mid-level commander loyal to Dogo Giɗe, one of the region’s most powerful warlords. He confirmed that his group controls several artisanal pits near Barayar Zaki and Bagega, where illegal gold extraction continues despite repeated military raids.
“Young boys guard the mine shafts or follow the smugglers,” Yakubu explained. “Older ones handle the money or deal with buyers.” He paused before adding, “The bosses don’t need to raid villages every week now. Gold comes to them.”
According to Yakubu, bandits now prefer gold mining to kidnapping because it brings steady income with less risk. Unlike abductions, which attract military attention and media coverage, gold extraction provides continuous cash flow through taxes, protection fees, and sales to middlemen who smuggle the ore to Niger or Togo. “When we sell gold, no one shouts or sends soldiers. When we take people, they come for us,” he said quietly.
Security analysts and reports by the International Crisis Group and ENACT Africa have similarly documented this trend, noting that the gold trade has become a sustainable alternative revenue stream for armed groups across Nigeria’s Northwest—one that fuels both survival and continued violence.
According to a 2023 report by SBM Intelligence, many such armed groups now function like militia cartels, with command structures, territorial boundaries, and economic targets tied directly to mining activities. Their profits, often laundered through local markets or illicit traders, fund weapon purchases and sustain the cycle of violence.
These accounts align with statements by Solid Minerals Minister Dele Alake who admitted that even official efforts “ had allowed illegal miners to exploit our resources”. An anti-terrorism financier, Tayo Yusuf, bluntly calls it a nexus of crime – revenues from gold and other minerals are routinely funneled to armed gangs.
One man who saw this system from inside is Gambo Ahmed, a former bandit from Zamfara who now farms on the outskirts of Anka. “We used to steal cattle; now a kilo of gold buys ten rifles,” he said. “When politicians and soldiers realized how much money was in gold, they joined in. We didn’t bring the guns — the gold did.”
Investigations by security analysts reveal collusion between bandits, politicians and even some security personnel. One report noted that “Miners bribed Nigerien soldiers to let gold through the border.
Behind the violence in Zamfara and Kaduna lies a darker truth: politicians and local elites secretly profiting from the same mines that fuel armed banditry. Security analysts and local sources describe a system where power, money, and violence merge around gold. Politicians who hold undeclared mining concessions often bankroll armed groups to guard their sites and eliminate rivals.
Field reports and interviews reveal that gangs such as the Baleri network and Dogo Gide’s faction grew wealthy by protecting these mines for political patrons. When rival jihadist elements like Ansaru moved into Zamfara’s forests, territorial battles erupted, leaving hundreds dead and entire villages displaced.
A repentant Banditwho asked not to be named told me he joined the group when an elder who happens to be ring Leader handed him a gun at age 16. “I didn’t know anything then,” he said quietly. “But I’ve left now. There’s nothing to eat, and our village has no water.”
His story mirrors what many miners also described. With farms abandoned, markets destroyed, and few alternatives for survival, digging for gold becomes the only option left for many young men.
“We do this digging with our bare hands, and every day is a prayer we survive. But these guns don’t leave us,” says Yaro, another miner in Zamfara. “My brother is gone; he was shot over a dispute at the mine. I came back only to care for his children.”
Cross-Border Gold and Terror
Most of Nigeria’s illegally mined gold ends up in the UAE. In 2022, a Swissaid study reported that 435 tonnes of African gold, worth over $30 billion, were smuggled out of the continent. Of that, 405 tonnes went to the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is the primary hub for undeclared gold, receiving about 93 percent of Africa’s illicit exports that year, according to the Financial Times.
This flow of gold supports armed groups, drains national revenue, and fuels regional criminal networks.
Dr. Nafisa Bello, mineral economist (Abuja) — “Dubai’s vaults are filling with our blood. Every ounce they buy unchecked lets bandits refill their ammunition. Cleaning up this pipeline is as urgent as disarming the criminals themselves.”
ENACT, a South Africa-based policy and research organisation focused on transnational organised crime in Africa, reports that gold smuggling routes from Nigeria are well established. Gold is often concealed in personal luggage or vehicles and moved across borders, sometimes mixed with legally exported gold from other African countries. Nigerian traffickers take advantage of weak customs checks and complicit local officials.
In a 2022 ENACT analysis, the group warned that unregulated gold mining in Nigeria may be contributing to the financing of terrorism. The article cautions that illicit proceeds from gold could end up in the hands of non-state armed groups or terrorist cells, especially given the absence of effective oversight and monitoring.
Though direct evidence linking Nigerian gold to Islamic State affiliates remains scarce, ENACT points to patterns seen elsewhere in West Africa where gold smuggling finances extremist activity. The fear is that similar models could take root in Nigeria, especially in mining regions where banditry, insurgency, and illegal resource extraction overlap.
Nevertheless, there are efforts to legalize the trade. In November 2024, the solid minerals minister proposed a “legal route” with the UAE – not just to stop leaks, but to boost official revenues . The promise: clearer chains of custody and proper assays at source. For now, though, local miners view international money with suspicion. “Dubai traders whisper about our gold every time they pass by,” says one artisanal miner. The government talks about bilateral committees; in the camps, bandit leaders talk about bigger plans.
In the bandit-plagued bush of Zamfara and the forest corridors of Birnin Gwari, gold is more than a mineral—it’s a war currency.
A six-week undercover inquiry reveals a tightly knit network of buyers operating under the radar, smuggling raw gold through illicit trails stretching from northwestern Nigeria to the Persian Gulf. These buyers, often masked as local merchants, serve as the first link in a global laundering chain.
Exclusive Interview: Inside the Dirty Trade
A hidden settlement outside Anka LGA, known for its bustling gold market, revealed details of its underground trade during field interviews with local miners, traders, and middlemen who operate between mining sites and smugglers. Malam Sani, a known buyer, said that he bought N10 million of gold every market day.
“We buy between ₦5 million to ₦10 million worth of gold every market day. Sometimes, we buy 100-500 grams. Sometimes more. The price per gram is around ₦18,000 to ₦20,000, depending on purity.” Sometimes, we buy 100 gold pieces, melt them, and repackage them for others. It’s quick,” he added.
But when asked where the larger quantities of gold were being taken, he simply nodded toward the north.
“From here, it goes to Gusau, then to Kano. After that? It disappears. Some say Sokoto. Some say Niger Republic. But everyone knows the end buyer sits in Dubai”, he further added.
His account matches multiple investigations showing how gold from Zamfara and Kaduna moves through a chain of smugglers and middlemen across northern Nigeria, crosses porous Sahelian borders, and ends up in Dubai’s gold markets, where the origin is often laundered through legal trade channels.
While he did not offer further details, existing reports suggest that “the north” likely refers to informal smuggling corridors leading through Nigeria’s northern borders into Niger and across the Sahel. According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, these routes are used to funnel gold, both legal and illicit, toward regional trading hubs in countries like Mali and Burkina Faso. From there, it often ends up in major export destinations like the United Arab Emirates.
These northern pathways persist because of weak border controls, corruption among officials, and the presence of armed groups who extract informal tolls from smugglers in exchange for protection or passage.
Another trader, Hassan, was more direct when asked about the money flowing through the gold trade.
“We don’t ask questions,” he said. “The big men come in Toyota Hilux trucks with armed escorts.”
When pressed, he explained that these “big men” are a mix of politicians, wealthy businessmen, and licensed dealers fronting for powerful patrons. The escorts, he added, are often off-duty security personnel or hired gunmen who ensure the gold moves without interference.
“We sell,” Hassan continued. “They pay in cash. Sometimes in dollars. Once, I got paid in CFA francs. That’s when you know it’s going across the border.”
Field investigators and local vigilantes confirm his account, describing a covert gold supply chain protected by those meant to police it, blurring the line between legality and crime in Nigeria’s northwest.
A retired Customs official who now consults for a mining cooperative said, “It’s a chain, my friend. From village mines to Dubai stores. Everyone eats, but the poor bleed.”
Follow the Gold, Find the Guns
A 2023 report by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime estimated that over 95 tonnes of artisanal gold left Africa unrecorded, with Nigeria among the top leakage points. Dubai imported over $4 billion worth of African gold that year without proper origin documentation—much of it likely sourced from conflict zones.
Local security officials confirmed that part of the proceeds fund armed groups.
“Each kilogram that leaves Zamfara funds new AK-47s,” says a senior DSS officer who requested anonymity. “These aren’t just illegal miners. They are proxy financiers for terror syndicates.”
Despite repeated diplomatic talks, the UAE remains a favored endpoint. An insider source under the Ministry of Solid Minerals admitted that they had several days but the Dubai ministry will blacklist the traders when pressure comes internationally.
“We send data, reports, even photos. But Dubai won’t blacklist these traders unless they’re pressured internationally.”
Final Warning
Dr. Nafisa Bello, a mineral economist, doesn’t mince words:
“Every ounce of gold out of Zamfara is soaked in blood. If Dubai keeps buying, our forests will keep burning.”
Her warning is not metaphorical. The forests of Zamfara are literally on fire. Armed groups set them ablaze to flush out rival miners, scare communities into fleeing, or cover up fresh graves. In some cases, the fires clear paths for illegal mining operations, allowing trucks and equipment to move in without resistance.
These are not wildfires. They are deliberate acts of war against the land and its people.
Locals say the smoke is constant during the dry season. A schoolteacher in Dansadau described how the skyline turns black by noon. “The trees are gone. The animals too. The air smells like metal and ash,” he said.
Satellite imagery reviewed shows scorched earth spreading around known gold clusters. From Anka to Maru, forests that once shielded farming villages are being swallowed by illegal mining and armed conflict.
It is a war economy. It is funded by foreign demand, enabled by state silence, and measured not in profits but in lives lost and futures erased. The more gold leaves unnoticed through smuggling routes, the more destruction remains buried in Nigeria’s forgotten forests.
The fires will not stop until the world starts watching.
While Abuja negotiates bilateral routes and formal trade channels, in the forests of Nigeria, bullets still chase gold dust.
Colonel Tunde Okafor, Army liaison officer (Kaduna), said that this is not just about bullets. We need drones in the sky and scanners at the borders. The money dries up only if the market closes.
Regional experts warn that Birnin Gwari has become a flashpoint where jihadist factions and bandit groups collide over control of gold profits. In 2022, fighters linked to Ansaru reportedly clashed with Dogo Gide’s men after seizing one of his mining routes, leaving dozens dead and forcing nearby villages to flee. These battles are not about ideology but about who controls the flow of gold.
Each cross-border road out of Nigeria carries smuggled gold that fuels conflicts beyond its borders—feeding Libya’s black-market bullion trade and financing militants in Mali. As one Nigerian security official put it, “We are not just fighting bandits; we’re fighting the demand in Dubai.”
Faces of Survival Zamfara IDP Camp
This investigative report by Sani Saidu Muhammad, a 2024/2025 Resilience Fellow of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), was developed through a mentorship programme with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and La Cellule Norbert Zongo pour le journalisme d’investigation en Afrique de l’Ouest (CENOZO), as part of the “Support to the Mitigation of Destabilizing Effects of Transnational Organised Crime (M-TOC)” project. The M-TOC project is commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and GI-TOC from 2024 to 2025. This article is totally independent and does not necessarily express the views of GI-TOC, CENOZO, GIZ, or GFFO.