‘Yellow One Million’ Oversees Forest Concentration Camps for Hostages
By Mike Odeh James
(Kaduna) He’s called “Yellow One Million” — commander of a Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM) accused of running Kaduna State’s most brutal kidnapping camp.
Deep inside the forests surrounding Rijana, along the Abuja–Kaduna highway, freed captives describe a feared figure who oversees one of the most ruthless hostage networks in Northwestern Nigeria. For years the Rijana forest straddling Chikun and Kachia counties has been synonymous with terror.
Farmers, traders, pastors, students, and church worshippers traveling through Southern Kaduna have vanished into camps hidden beneath thick forest canopies. Survivors and local intelligence sources repeatedly identify Yellow One Million as a dominant figure controlling portions of the hostage infrastructure that stretches through the Rijana forest and neighboring corridors.
A Name Confirmed in the Field
In March, troops of Operation Fansan Yamma arrested a suspect along the Rigachukun–Kirama–Afaka axis whom investigators described as a member of a criminal syndicate “led by a bandit kingpin identified as ‘Yellow,’ operating within the Rijana Forest.” It was an uncommon official confirmation of a name that survivors and Southern Kaduna community leaders have mentioned to TruthNigeria for more than a year.
According to multiple survivor testimonies gathered over the past year by TruthNigeria, witnesses say Yellow operates not merely as a field commander but as an administrator of terror — directing armed gangs, supervising ransom negotiations, ordering punishments and, according to former captives, authorizing executions.
Enslavement of Hundreds
One former hostage from Kajuru County who spent weeks inside a Rijana camp described the structure as “a human warehouse.”
“There were hundreds of people there — women, old men, babies, pastors,” the survivor said. “They separated people according to who could pay ransom. If your family delayed, they beat you in front of everybody.”
The survivor said Yellow One Million was feared even among other criminals.
“Whenever he arrived, everybody stopped talking. He carried himself like a commander. He was light-skinned, tall, thin, always surrounded by heavily armed boys. Some called him ‘Yellow’ because of his complexion.”
Another released captive from Kachia said the Fulani Terrorists routinely staged public beatings and executions to terrify hostages into forcing relatives to pay quickly.
“He would tell them to flog people with wire or horsewhips,” the witness said. “I saw old men collapse after torture. One man was shot after his family failed to raise money.”
A third eyewitness, abducted alongside church members in Southern Kaduna, compared the camp to “a concentration camp.”
“People were starving,” the survivor recalled. “Women cried all night. Sick people were abandoned. Some were forced to carry firewood for the terrorists. Anyone who resisted was beaten mercilessly.”
‘Yellow’ a Common Nom de Guerre
The name should be read with one caution. “Yellow” is a common nom de guerre across Nigeria’s banditry networks — borne, among others, by Isuhu Yellow, killed in Zamfara in 2025, and by the “Yellow Janbros” family linked to the 2024 Kuriga school abduction. No verified photograph of the Rijana commander has surfaced, and TruthNigeria identifies him strictly as the figure security sources place at the head of the Rijana syndicate.
TruthNigeria investigations into the Rijana camps have documented repeated allegations of torture, executions, forced labor, and systematic extortion targeting predominantly Christian farming communities across Kaduna State. Survivors describe the camps as semi-permanent settlements protected by lookout units and ringed by terrain that security forces struggle to penetrate. A recent investigation documented hundreds of hostages held across multiple camps where kidnapped Christians from Kajuru, Kachia, Chikun, Kagarko, and surrounding counties were taken after raids on villages and highways.
Survivors consistently report that ransom negotiations are run with military precision. Families sell farmland, livestock, and homes to free their relatives. In some cases, captives reportedly died even after payments were made.
One former captive said Yellow One Million told hostages that rescues could not happen. “He told us the government could not touch them in the forest,” the witness said. “He boasted that everybody feared them.”
A Network Under Watch by the United States
His network has expanded sharply over two years as kidnapping-for-ransom hardened into a major criminal economy across Northwestern Nigeria, and his name has surfaced repeatedly in mass-abduction cases along the Kurmin Wali and Rijana corridor, where victims are marched into forest camps run by Fulani Terrorist commanders.
Although Nigerian authorities have rarely spoken publicly about Yellow One Million, intelligence sources say his raids are known to multiple security agencies — including those of the U.S. government. Foreign intelligence services are tracking militia-linked kidnapping in Northern Nigeria for its overlap with terrorism, arms trafficking, and mass atrocities.
David Onyilokwu Idah, director of the International Human Rights Commission in Abuja, dismissed reported efforts to broker the warlord a pardon.
“The international community knows about Yellow One Million and his activities,” Idah told TruthNigeria. “They also know that he is trying very hard to get Kaduna State to talk him into an amnesty, so that all his atrocities can be wiped out. I can assure you that won’t happen. Yellow One Million has too much blood on his hands.”
Mike Odeh James reports conflict for TruthNigeria.
