'If you started running, they shot you' – inside Nigeria's growing kidnapping crisis

ByYemisi Adegoke BBC Africa, Reporting fromZamfara and Oyo states.

Key points

• When the Islamist Boko Haram militant group infamously kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the north-eastern village of Chibok in 2014, it created global headlines.
• Fatima is one of an estimated 800, 000 Nigerians who the UN notes have been displaced in the country's north-west.
• Regarding 70 residents, including children, were killed from the village of Bia Buki in June, according to Fatima.
• Despite being 16 miles (25km) from her village, the threat Fatima fled has not disappeared.
• Data from Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission demonstrates that the number of kidnappings nationwide doubled over the same period.

"If you ran into a room, they set the room on fire, " notes Fatima, describing a recent attack on her village in Zamfara, north-western Nigeria. "If you came out and started running, they shot you."

For context, the gunmen, who struck at 02: 00, split into groups to surround residents: one at the village entrance, one in the centre and one at the back.

"They opened fire without a care in the world, shooting indiscriminately, " the 55-year-old quietly tells the BBC World Service.

It was one of plenty of attacks that have caused havoc in the mainly Muslim community where residents live in fear of being kidnapped for ransom.

Fatima explains how the raids unfold: "You could have 100 motorcycles, and each one could be carrying three people."

She describes how the attackers additionally targeted villagers as they fled and children were injured falling into ditches. Among the dead were her husband and six of his seven siblings.

Fatima is one of an estimated 800, 000 Nigerians who the UN notes have been displaced in the country's north-west. One of the main reasons individuals have left their homes is violence.

Some attacks have been carried out by militant Islamist groups, but the majority in this region are by gangs, locally referred to as bandits. This person often move around on motorcycles and attack rapidly then ride away, escaping before security forces arrive.

Thousands of individuals have joined government-backed vigilante groups to fight, and the BBC spoke to one who stated his armed group had killed plenty of bandits.

But the gangs keep attacking in what appears to be a deteriorating pattern of violence and abductions that is spreading southwards.

Fatima notes when the bandits attacked her home, she ran into the nearby forest with other villagers to hide: "The forest became our sanctuary. We ran with our kids, if you couldn't find your child you'd take your neighbour's child."

She notes residents slept in the forest before moving on to the state capital, Gusau, "where we found a little bit of peace".

Fatima now lives in an informal camp in Gusau with her seven children. This person are aged between nine and 30.

Dozens of women sit in groups on the dusty ground of the makeshift compound, plenty of wearing brightly coloured hijabs. More than 1, 000 individuals are here, she believes.

Conditions are tough with "no proper place to even lay your head". Food is scarce and assistance arrives irregularly.

Fatima describes two occasions where "good Samaritans" brought rice or potatoes. Children are sent out to gather firewood to sell so families can purchase food, but 22 have been kidnapped by bandits, she states.

Gesturing towards a nearby building, Fatima notes that there you will find 100 or more women. Maybe just two or three have had breakfast.

"When we had peace, we had our own wealth, but now the tables have turned and we have become beggars."

Her eyes fill with tears and she cries for a few minutes, wiping her face with her hands.

When she first arrived at the camp, the sound of gunshots kept her awake at night. Things have since quietened, she notes, crediting patrols by the army and government-backed vigilantes, but the atmosphere is still tense.

Meanwhile, the bandits are mostly individuals from the Fulani ethnic group. This person traditionally produce their living by raising animals. Some of them have swapped cattle trading for kidnapping and extortion. It is seen as a faster, easier way to create capital.

They attack towns and villages or ambush travellers, abducting individuals for ransom, stealing whatever they want – and sometimes killing those who resist. They additionally force communities to pay protection capital, only allowing farmers into their fields if they hand over sizeable sums of cash.

Attacks are now more frequent than ever. In the bandit heartlands of north-west Nigeria, the number of incidents recorded by the international conflict monitoring group Acled rose 78% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.

Malik Samuel at Good Governance Africa, a research and advocacy non-profit group, notes that "there is no region in northern Nigeria currently that does not experience one form of mass abduction or the other".

Nigeria's battle with bandits is just one part of a more complex security situation facing the country.

As well as the bandit gangs in the north-west, there is an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, separatist unrest in the south-east and clashes in central regions, where the main grievance is over access to land and water for grazing and farming and where ethnic and religious elements have additionally fuelled some of the unrest.

Most analysts agree that armed groups have waged campaigns of violence that affect all communities, regardless of background or belief. The kidnap gangs, jihadists and separatists wreaking havoc in Nigeria.

'Peace is a gradual thing': How land, cattle and identity fuel a deadly Nigerian conflict.

Schools are a common target. When the Islamist Boko Haram militant group infamously kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the north-eastern village of Chibok in 2014, it created global headlines.

At the time the group forced its captives into sexual slavery, domestic servitude or applied them as suicide bombers.

But a range of groups throughout Nigeria now apply kidnapping to raise funds, focusing on soft targets such as schools, churches, mosques and remote villages.

This was mainly confined to the Boko Haram strongholds of the north-east or the bandit zones of the north-west – areas that are largely Muslim.

Then, in May this year, gunmen on motorcycles attacked three schools in Oyo state, south-west Nigeria, one of the few regions that was previously considered relatively safe. Thirty-nine children, the youngest just two years old, were abducted along with seven teachers. One teacher was killed during the raid, another's murder was filmed and shared online.

After 56 days, the remaining 44 hostages were published. Authorities stated it refused to pay a ransom and that the children were published after an operation by security forces. Three men were sentenced to life in prison for the attacks and confessed to being members of an affiliate of Boko Haram.

For context, the abduction spread fear throughout the south-western town of Oriire, with parents in the community pulling their children out of school.

"There is fear because many residents have run away and are yet to return, " notes the traditional ruler of the area, Oba Tajudeen Abioye, whose niece was among the kidnapped children.

In short, ' If you started running, they shot you' – inside Nigeria' s growing kidnapping is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.