How women drive youths into gang violence in northeast Nigeria | Story

Maiduguri, Nigeria Mohammed Abdulhamid raises his remaining fingers to greet passers-by outside his home in Ajilari, an area on the outskirts of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.

Hands are hard. Most of the fingers on his right hand were amputated during a terrorist attack in 2023, a permanent reminder of the life he says was consumed by violence.

He no longer remembers his age. But he remembers that night.

“The terrorists who attacked me were retaliating, and like the wind blows the leaf of every tree, I don’t remember how many people I attacked that night,” Mohammed told Al Jazeera.

Unable to return to his job as a contract carpenter, Mohammed now spends his days trying to prevent young people from making the same decisions.

“After understanding the consequences, now I make sure that our young children do not fight because it is difficult for them to leave once you join them,” he says.

Over the years, youth gangs popularly known as “Marlians” have terrorized the communities of Maiduguri and neighboring Jere. Armed with locally made knives, axes, machetes and other weapons, the warring groups would fight in their own territories, leaving the residents in a state of fear and revenge.

The violence escalated until in 2023, the Governor of Borno, Babagana Umara Zulum, ordered the destruction of the insurgents after fierce clashes. As the gangs grew, they accused people of using tricycles to steal phones, kidnap passengers and carry out robberies across the city.

But in areas affected by more than a decade of conflict and displacement, unexpected peace efforts have emerged. Instead of relying on arrests and security violations, local women, community leaders and ex-gangsters are trying to persuade young men to stop violence.

Researchers and community leaders trace the violence to the deep wounds left by years of war. Borno is the birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has ravaged northeastern Nigeria for more than a decade. The United Nations estimates that the conflict has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced more than 2 million people across the Lake Chad region.

“We see young people getting more involved in drugs and petty violence, which escalates into crime,” explains Hassana Ibrahim Waziri, Executive Director of Unified Members for Women Advancement (UMWA). “They have grown up in a violent environment because they see it happening all the time since they were little children.”

Defeat criminal gangs

The success, community leaders say, came when they stopped treating bandits as a security threat.

From 2018 to 2021, UMWA, with the support of Conciliation Resources, began holding regular talks with rebel leaders in 10 unstable areas.

“We talked to them twice a week, making them understand that they can do better to have a stable future,” says Waziri.

Instead of focusing on punishment, the planners tried to influence prominent gang leaders to promote peace in their communities.

As the security forces chased the arrests, the women in Maiduguri’s most troubled areas began to struggle with a major challenge: changing attitudes.

Grassroots groups including Ajilari Cross Development Association and Gomari Development Association have stepped up efforts to negotiate through community mediation, persuading rival gangs to resolve conflicts before they turn deadly.

“Terrorists who were once feared have stopped committing violence,” says Bulama Babangida, the leader of the people in charge of the project in Ajilari. “We have trained local women who now run peace-building programs every Sunday against these bandits and cooperate with the security forces to end conflicts before they are killed.”

The head of women at Gomari Development Association, Fatima Tahir, said that the project was initially met with opposition from the men of the community. But attitudes changed when the residents saw how women could help resolve conflicts that often led to murder.

“I was given the task of gathering women, training them, and overseeing the youth to protect peace in both Gomari and Bulunkutu areas. I also appointed women representatives in different areas to oversee the dialogue between the different groups that are in conflict with each other,” Tahir told Al Jazeera.

Community leaders estimate that more than 1,000 pirates went through the negotiations, although this number has not been independently verified.

Some of these women work quietly, monitoring emerging conflicts, patrolling areas related to drug use and providing information to community leaders, police, the military and the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) before conflicts break out.

Stop violence

Muhammad was one of the reformers.

Those conversations forced him to address the violence that perpetrates violence against families, including his own. As his reputation changed from a fearsome warrior to a peacemaker, his fellow youth chose him to lead a group of ex-criminals who had given up violence.

He says many stopped fighting after learning the benefits of peace and began to respect the elders of the community.

Ma’aji Abba, a 27-year-old former gang member in Gomari, believes outsiders often don’t understand why young people join gangs in the first place.

“A lot of people say we join these groups because of unemployment, but for me that’s not the reason,” Abba told Al Jazeera, weeks after being released from prison in May. “This problem is very serious in the areas where we grew up, and when you grow up in an area where people are always fighting, you naturally join the fight even if you don’t know why people are fighting.”

Now as they try to rebuild their lives, both men face an uncertain future.

Abba hopes to earn enough money to start a clothing business. Mohammed, meanwhile, is battling a chronic injury to his hand, an injury that ended his career as a carpenter and continues to limit his earning power.

Stressed peace

However, the gains remain weak.

Many ex-militants told Al Jazeera that ceasing violence offers little protection to former enemies. Others say they continue to be threatened by rival communities seeking revenge for past atrocities.

Without a plan to rehabilitate them, community leaders fear that some ex-criminals may return to violence.

At the same time, the decline in donor funding has left many reconciliation processes struggling to succeed. In some cases, organizers say they pay for meetings and efforts out of their own pockets.

Peace advocates like Waziri believe that repairing the damage caused by years of conflict requires patience and perseverance.

“If someone has peace in themselves, they can spread it in their communities,” he said. “That’s why we need to help these young people establish their own peace, so that all people can benefit from it.”