Insurgents, Bandits and Kidnappers Forming Alliances: Security Expert
By Luka Binniyat and Suleman Ayuba
(MAIDUGURI) – It’s a heart-breaking scene in Nigeria’s flyover land, but is anyone in Abuja noticing?
A propaganda video from the Islamist terror group Boko Haram features hundreds of traumatized women and children captured two months ago in the Christian-majority town of Ngoshe (“in-GOSH e”) in Northeast Nigeria in March 2026. Various female figures who were once Christian and then forced to swear allegiance to Islam are begging government to pay their ransom to the terrorists, whose moniker, “Boko Haram,” means “Western learning forbidden.”
However, Boko Haram has proven to be a master of western videography. Their public video documents that kidnapping has become a growth industry for the Islamist insurgents in the Nigeria’s Northeast, as well as their Islamist allies holding hundreds of hostages for ransom in the Rijanna camp system in northcentral Nigeria.
Yet, the bandit terrorists managing dozens of small camps in Kaduna state rarely make videos.
Another difference is that their goal is to extract ransoms from immediate relatives of the kidnapped hostages, and if the group is large, an aggregate ransom from government officials behind the scenes.
A third key difference between the Boko Haram terrorists and the Fulani tribal militia terrorizing all Middle Belt states is that the United States targets and bombs Boko Haram but never Fulani militia. The reason, according to Judd Saul, founder of TruthNigeria, is that the US government’s counterterrorism doctrine does not consider the Fulani bandits or kidnappers as political insurgents.
Nigerian officials and the First Lady of Nigeria have made frequent trips to lobby the White House and elite media to assure decision makers that Abuja is fully engaged to defeat the ISIS insurgencies.
The Boko Haram video, released on Sunday, April 17, 2026, by Borno South Youth Alliance, shows three terrorists in army camouflage with guns slung over their shoulders.
In the edited video, one of the Islamists, wearing a military camouflage jacket over a long blue tunic, handed microphones to women wearing Muslim hijabs.
We Have Been Abandoned to Die
“First, we thank God for today,” says a middle-aged matron.
“We are calling on our leaders since that day of 72 hours ultimatum there has been not any response from the government. They have (distributed us) to different locations.
“We don’t move we are being guarded,” she said in a tone filled with trauma.
“Please, we are pleading with government to put effort to release us. We are in pain and trouble. Some have high blood pressure. We are calling on our local government leaders including our district leaders in Ngoshe.
“Is it that you don’t want us anymore; or we are not important to you?” she queried.
She added that the terrorists were accusing Senator Ali Ndume — representing Borno South in the Nigerian Senate — of being uncooperative.
No One Can Imagine Our Sufferings
“Are we not Nigerians; or what is our sin?” she chided the government.
“Many have died in the bush here; many don’t know the whereabouts of their families; the trauma of losing loved ones.
The terrorists then prompted another woman, believed to be a Christian but dressed in a Muslim hijab, to speak in Glavda — the ethnic language of the Ngoshe people — which was later transcribed for TruthNigeria.
“If Senator Ndume is not helping in our release, can the public please appeal to him?” she said.
Punch Newspapers reported on April 20, 2026, that Boko Haram demanded a ransom of N5 billion ($3.6 million) for the release of the 416 women and children believed to be in captivity since Ngoshe was attacked on April 4, 2026.
“The recent abductions in Borno State and Oyo State should tell you that terrorist and criminal kidnapping networks are collaborating and expanding beyond their traditional zones,” according to security expert Col. Danbaba Aliyu (rtd) of SignWell Security Consult.
“The brutality of the Oyo kidnapping has all the signatures of Boko Haram,” he added.
“It is true that Boko Haram remains strongest in the North-East, but its tactics, collaborators, and influence are spreading through strategic alliances with bandits, informants, and criminal gangs across many parts of Nigeria, and that should worry us,” he said.
Mussa kidnapped School Kids Now 48
Meanwhile, the United Kibaku Global Youth Network (UKGYN) on Monday, April 18, 2026, issued a press statement in Borno State, raising alarm over the condition of school pupils kidnapped by Boko Haram from Mussa community, Askira/Uba County, Borno State, (in southern Borno near the border with Adamawa state) on Friday, April 15, 2026.
The Kibaku people are the ethnic nationality of Mussa and are mainly Christians, TruthNigeria findings showed.
The statement, signed by Hon. Paul Mauntah Yaga, Chairman of the network, read in part:
“Our hearts are with the affected families of the Mussa school children that were kidnapped with no news from the Government.
“Our findings shows that the number is now 48, not 40 as previously said,” he stated.
“It is painful that such tragic incidents continue to happen.”
Terrorists Dumping Kids in The Bush
A pastor in a church in Mussa, who requested anonymity, spoke exclusively to TruthNigeria on the condition of the children.
“There is something that the media does not know,” he said.
“We have three Mussa communities.” According to him, the children were kidnapped from Mussa 1, which he described as being on the southernmost fringes of Sambisa Forest — a notorious terrorist region in Borno State.
“Many of the children are around 2 years old. There is even a child that is below 2 years among them,” he said.
“All of them are children of Christians,” he affirmed.
“We have been informed that they are just dumping the small kids in the bush and hunters from other communities have picked some,” he said.
“It is very dangerous to reach the other side and retrieve the kids for now,” he added.
Luka Binniyat writes for TruthNigeria from Kaduna. Suleman Ayuba reports for TruthNigeria from Borno.
