This report examines the origins, evolution, and operational logic of Lakurawa, a significant armed group operating in Northwest and North-Central Nigeria. Based on triangulated qualitative data, including key informant interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, and primary source document analysis, conducted between early 2025 and April 2026, the study challenges prevailing narratives about the group’s emergence and affiliations.
Contrary to widespread claims that Lakurawa formed between 2017 and 2018 when community leaders in Sokoto State invited armed men from the Niger Republic to combat banditry, this report finds that the group’s roots trace back to al-Qaeda recruitment in Mali around 2011–2012. Approximately 328 fighters, mostly Chadians and Malians, entered Northeast Nigeria in late 2013, fought alongside Boko Haram under Abubakar Shekau, and participated in major offensives, including Baga, Bama, Dikwa, and Gwoza, before relocating to North-Central and Northwest Nigeria in 2015.
Malik Samuel is a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. Before joining GGA, he was a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, specialising in the Boko Haram conflict in the Lake Chad Basin Region. Malik also worked as a conflict researcher with Amnesty International Nigeria. He was also a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders field communications manager in Northeast Nigeria. Before that, he was an investigative journalist at the Abuja-based International Centre for Investigative Reporting. Malik holds a Master's degree in Conflict, Peace, and Security from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
