How Chinese Miners Fuel Nigeria’s Terrorist Banditry, By Farooq Kperogi By Farooq Kperogi

At the African Studies Association conference in Atlanta late last year, Professor Tade Aina, Senior Programs Director at the Andrew Carnegie Foundation and one of Africa’s most respected sociologists, drew my attention to a critical but often overlooked factor in Nigeria’s insecurity: mining.

His observation stayed with me. This week, I decided to examine the issue more closely.
To be clear, illegal mining is not the sole cause of Nigeria’s insecurity. The country’s security challenges stem from a combination of factors, including state failure, rural poverty, elite complicity, climate pressures, ethnic tensions, religious extremism, weakened local economies, ungoverned forests, arms trafficking, declining traditional authority, and poor governance.
However, illegal mining has emerged as one of the least discussed drivers of violence in parts of the country.
Evidence increasingly shows that bandits and terrorists operate around mining sites, turning mining into a conflict economy. It finances armed groups, fuels territorial control, corrupts local authority structures, and sustains illicit international supply chains that transform Nigerian resources into foreign profit.
As far back as June 2020, Dr. Maurice Ogbonnaya of the Institute for Security Studies noted that collaboration between politically connected Nigerians and Chinese corporations involved in illegal gold mining was driving rural banditry and violent conflicts across parts of Northwest, Northcentral, and Southwest Nigeria.
He further reported that sponsors of illegal mining often finance banditry and cattle rustling to displace communities and create opportunities for illegal mining operations.
A November 2020 ENACT policy brief authored by Ogbonnaya stated that criminal collaboration between influential Nigerians and foreign corporations in illegal gold mining not only deprives the state of legitimate revenue but also fuels banditry and violent local conflicts.
For years, Nigerian authorities have largely approached insecurity as a military challenge. Troops are deployed, forests bombed, and occasional arrests made. Yet those who finance, profit from, and facilitate illegal mining often escape accountability.
A September 2023 investigation by WikkiTimes provided one of the clearest examples of the mining-security nexus. The report revealed that Chinese-affiliated miners operating under the licenses of Eso Terra Investment Limited and Majelo Global Resources Limited extracted minerals in communities within Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State while allegedly paying protection money to the Dogo Gide terror faction.
According to local miners interviewed by WikkiTimes, terrorists demanded millions of naira in payments and regularly seized mined stones. One miner claimed bandits received as much as N3 million weekly.
This is more than ordinary criminality. It represents a situation where armed groups impose taxes, control territory, and exercise powers normally reserved for the state.
Perhaps the most revealing comment came from Engineer Adamu Garba Musa, Director of Mining in the Niger State Ministry of Solid and Mineral Resources, who asked: “If bandits are disturbing people, how come the company is working successfully?”
The answer is simple. What is insecurity for villagers becomes an operating expense for illegal mining interests. Villagers pay with their lives and livelihoods, while miners pay protection fees. Terrorists profit from both.
A March 2026 report by Good Governance Africa described Zamfara’s gold industry as a major driver of insecurity, arguing that gold has evolved into a strategic resource for violent actors.
Similarly, a joint report by NEITI and ANEEJ, cited by Reuters in May 2026, found that Nigeria loses substantial mineral revenue through illegal trading networks involving foreign buyers, shell companies, and criminal groups. The report stated that foreign buyers, particularly Chinese actors, wield significant influence over pricing, purchases, and export channels.
It also estimated that approximately 80 percent of mining activities in Northwest Nigeria are illegal, with operations expanding significantly between 2022 and 2024 in areas affected by terrorism and banditry.
For balance, it should be noted that the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria has denied allegations that Chinese nationals or companies fund terrorism through illegal mining. In February 2026, the embassy described such claims as baseless and reiterated China’s zero-tolerance policy toward illegal mining activities by its companies.
Nonetheless, repeated investigations have linked some Chinese nationals, Chinese-connected entities, and Nigerian collaborators to illegal mining operations. The issue is not China as a nation but a predatory extractive system involving foreign actors, local elites, criminal networks, and armed groups.
The Nigerian government is aware of the challenge. In December 2024, authorities lifted a five-year ban on mining exploration in Zamfara, acknowledging that illegal operators had continued exploiting mineral resources throughout the suspension period.
There have also been efforts to improve oversight. According to a February 2026 Premium Times report, the Ministry of Solid Minerals established 388 mineral buying centres in 2024 to curb illegal mining and increase revenue. Minister Dele Alake disclosed that over 350 illegal miners had been arrested and more than 150 prosecuted, while artisanal miners were being encouraged to form cooperatives and enter the formal economy.
These measures are positive but insufficient if they focus only on low-level operators while powerful financiers and beneficiaries remain untouched.
What Should Be Done?
1. Treat Illegal Mining as a National Security Emergency
Major mining sites across Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, and other states should be comprehensively mapped using satellite technology, intelligence gathering, and physical inspections. Authorities must know who owns, operates, and profits from each site.
2. Publish Beneficial Ownership Information
All mining licenses should be linked to publicly accessible databases showing their true owners. Licenses should not conceal politicians, retired military officers, foreign proxies, or criminal actors.
3. Strengthen Mineral Traceability
Gold, lithium, and other valuable minerals should be traceable from extraction to export. Every shipment should have documented origins, buyers, tax records, and export histories.
4. Follow the Money
Authorities must target financiers, exporters, corrupt officials, and foreign collaborators. Suspicious accounts should be frozen, illicit exports seized, and complicit public officials prosecuted.
5. Engage Foreign Governments Firmly
Nigeria should work diplomatically with countries whose nationals are repeatedly implicated in illegal mining. Convicted offenders should face imprisonment, asset forfeiture, and deportation after serving their sentences.
6. Link Military Operations to Economic Disruption
Military action alone cannot solve the problem. Terrorism thrives because it generates revenue. Disrupting the financial flows that sustain armed groups is essential.
Conclusion
Nigeria’s tragedy is not a lack of natural resources but the misuse of those resources. The gold of Zamfara, the lithium of Nasarawa, the minerals of Niger State, the tin of Plateau, and other valuable deposits should be driving development, creating jobs, and funding infrastructure.
Instead, too often, they finance violence, empower criminal networks, and deepen insecurity.
Until Nigeria dismantles the economic structures that make terrorism profitable, military victories alone will remain temporary. The country must ensure that its mineral wealth serves its citizens rather than those who profit from instability.