On a day when the Borno State Government had officially cleared and profiled over 6,000 farmers to venture into their fields, armed insurgents (believed to be ISWAP) intercepted a group of farmers in Bulagarji, a village just a few kilometers outside the town of Mafa. The insurgents took advantage of the distance some farmers traveled away from the security-protected "inner ring" of the town to kidnap them.

Perpetrators

Boko Haram

Response

The Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and local vigilantes intensified patrols around the Mafa/Dikwa road axis. However, relatives were left to negotiate ransoms ranging from small cash amounts to food items.

Displacement

0

Socioeconomic drivers

Sustenance needs, taxation of farming season, psychological intimidation.

Trajectory

By 2022, ISWAP began functioning as a predatory "tax collector" in the Mafa-Bulagarji axis. They rarely killed the farmers they caught, preferring to keep them as repeatable sources of revenue and food logistics.

Cycle notes

The Bulagarji Corridor — Bulagarji remains a high-risk "grey zone" because it sits between the protected town of Mafa and the ungoverned bush areas used by insurgents for movement toward the Sambisa fringes.

Pattern

The Ransom Harvest — This incident highlights a shift from mass killing (like the 2020 Zabarmari massacre) to sustenance kidnapping. Insurgents now use abductions to "tax" the farming season. In many cases, if cash is unavailable, they demand food supplies (like sacks of chinchin or fried snacks) in exchange for the release of captives.

Source

• https://humanglemedia.com/maiduguri-farmers-trooping-to-work-in-unsafe-areas-despite-abduction-cases/