SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS A WEAPON
Taken at Gunpoint, Raped at Will — or Kept as Wives
Fulani Terrorists Humiliate Southern Kaduna Men and Women with Sexual Violence
At Least 40 Villages Suffer Crimes Against Humanity without Outcry
By Mike Odeh James
KADUNA, Nigeria — Armed gangs are seizing women across Southern Kaduna and raping them, then releasing them without seeking ransom or coercing them into sex slavery as wives, often with the forced complicity of their male guardians, TruthNigeria has learned. Terrorism analysts call the practice sexual violence used as a weapon. The perpetrators are Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM), according to the victims interviewed by TruthNigeria.
“Females from the villages of Chizunu, Rido, Kakau Daji, Kwari and Angwar Madaki, all in Chikun County (Local Governance Area), are presently under grave threat of being kidnapped and sexually assaulted,” said Angelina Markus, 30, whom FEM gunmen kidnapped and sexually assaulted at their Rijana forest camp.
In chiefly Christian Southern Kaduna, a decade of FEM raids across Kajuru, Chikun, Kachia and Kauru counties has moved beyond killing and ransom. Women are now treated as commodities to be seized.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1820 and the Rome Statute, such rape and sexual slavery can constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. These accounts surface as U.S. lawmakers press to keep Nigeria designated a Country of Particular Concern.
Rape and Release in Chikun County
“This time, the Fulani do not kidnap the females to kill them or charge ransom. They simply walk up to these villages, snatch young girls at gunpoint and take them to their camps in Rijana. After spending two days with the girls, sleeping with them against their will, the terrorists give them money and ask them to go back,” Markus said.
“What is even more surprising is that the elders of those villages are aware of it, but do not do anything about this,” she added.
“In Kakau Daji, Chizunu and Rido, there are Fulani living in the surrounding bushes. They are armed, and they rape our girls at will,” said Janet Jonathan, a Chizunu resident.
“They just come around the villages, or wait for the girls to venture toward their farms near the bush, then seize them, and have sex with them for a couple of days and release them,” she added.
Ado Alipiri chairman of Kajuru County Internally Dispatched persons says, the villages under this kind of subjugation number more than 40 or even 50, but residents are not speaking out, and the government is also very quiet.
Godiya Yakubu, 31, and Kauna Namiji, abducted from Kujeni, Kajuru County, on June 20, 2026, escaped a Rijana camp after 60 days. Both told TruthNigeria that commander Kachalla and his deputy, despite publicly forbidding assaults on captives, raped them themselves. After repatriation to their families, female hostages stayed silent, fearing stigma.
Yakubu, Namiji and Jonathan later received cash support from Equipping the Persecuted (ETP).
Forced Marriage in Kajuru
Happy Dambo was 22 when Fulani Terrorists seized her from Kabo village in Karamai in August 2022. Rijana commander Sanda raped her at gunpoint, then married her.
“Today, Happy Dambo is Sanda’s wife. She was married to him and now has two baby boys for him at the camp,” said Grace Zanna, abducted with four other girls.
“I was with her at the camp, and when we wanted to escape that night, we asked her to come along with us and she said, ‘I don’t want to leave my kids behind,'” Zanna said.
Dambo feared rejection back home. “She did not betray us but refused to go along with us and preferred to stay with the Fulanis at Rijana,” Zanna said.
Former captives say Sanda informed her father, Elisha Dambo, of the marriage, and he acquiesced.
“Maybe out of fear that if he says no, they may kill her,” said fellow captive Mariama David.
Brides by Name
“In Kasoh village, very close to here, Fulani Ethnic Militia members are openly marrying girls from there,” said Luka Bala, record keeper of Janhurya, Kajuru County.
In 2023, Bala said, the terrorists stormed Kasoh, a mixed Christian and Muslim community, and demanded four girls by name — Padila Jamilu, Usaina Danjuma, Asama’u Aliyu and Aisha Idris — two of them Christians.
“Some of the parents refused, but the terrorists threatened to raze Kasoh to the ground, so they agreed,” he said. Some now have two or three children each.
Rape as a Weapon of Occupation
“His wife no longer belongs to him. The kidnappers sleep with her whenever they feel the urge, sometimes while the children watch,” said Reuben Buhari, co-founder of the Resilient Aid and Dialogue Initiative (RADi), a former gubernatorial press secretary.
Villagers said fighters leave a blanket or stick outside a home to claim a woman for the night; the husband sleeps outside. A husband who protests the claim on his wife is shot.
Such pacts reportedly bind more than 20 communities in Kajuru County, about 30 in Kachia County and dozens more in Chikun County. Kajuru’s state lawmaker, Danlami Stingo, and Kajuru IDP chairman Ali Ado Alipiri confirmed the accounts; Alipiri said the pattern extends to Kachia.
“Rape has become a constant feature of captivity,” said Alheri Magaji, RADi co-founder. Victims ranged from girls of 14 to women near 50, held for one to six months. Some wives were told to submit to spare husbands. Two 16-year-olds were assaulted for two days and freed without ransom. In other cases, families paid ransoms of $650 to $3,300 and gave motorcycles.
The strategic use of rape in total and unrestrained warfare is no new concept, according to Rev. Ladi Peter Thompson, a subject expert on terrorism. This terror hydra of Islamism has no conscience and this practice surged under the reign of Governor El Rufai. What these amoral terrorists are yet to realize is that Islam is now on trial worldwide because of these barbaric practices. What kind of god is sponsoring pedophiles and rapists? This is the question the mosque has to answer, since these atrocities are committed in Allah’s name
One woman from Kutura Station, abducted in 2022 and again in 2023, returned pregnant. Her family rejected her and the child.
Until Abuja, and the foreign capitals that arm it, treat this as a war crime rather than a local security problem, Rijana will keep taking girls.
Mike Odeh James is a conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.
