Insecurity in Nigeria persists. Several states are constantly under attacks from gunmen. This situation is rapidly deteriorating into generalized lawlessness. This article by Ebenezer Obadare is published by Council on Foreign Relations. Here is an excerpt:

On Monday March 28, 2022, some gunmen launched a deadly attack on a Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Abuja-Kaduna evening train carrying an estimated 398 passengers. After detonating explosives on the track (and possibly inside the train according to conflicting reports in the local media), the gunmen surrounded the immobilized train and started discharging their firearms into the carriages. It took at least an hour before a detachment of the Nigerian military came to the rescue of the passengers, who had cowered under their seats as the bandits fired incessantly.

The incident left at least eight people dead—among them a young medical doctor Chinelo Megafu and Musa Lawal-Ozigi, secretary-general of the country’s Trade Union Congress—and at least another forty-one hospitalized, while the yet unidentified assailants also captured some of the passengers.

The toll on the Muhammadu Buhari administration and Nigeria’s tottering democracy is likely to be greater.

Read the full article here.