South South and South East geopolitical zones have emerged the safest zones in Nigeria as terrorists, bandits and other assailants killed 7,222 persons and kidnapped 3,823 individuals in the country between January 1 and July 29, 2022.
This is according to data from the Nigeria Security Report published by Beacon Consulting – a security risk management and intelligence consulting company.
The report showed that Borno state, a Northeastern state and the stronghold of Boko Haram terrorists recorded the highest deaths of 163 people within the period under review, while Benue state, which appeared the most hounded state in the Middle Belt came second with 90 fatalities.
Also, the third most unsafe state was Kaduna which had 82 deaths within the period specified, according to the report.
Others that witnessed high deaths were Niger with 65 and Zamfara with 42.“Ondo state recorded the highest fatalities in the South West region at 55 persons killed in the monitored period while Ebonyi state had 28 fatalities as the state with the highest from the South East region,” the report disclosed.
The statement in the report said: “In June 2022, the government’s efforts significantly reduced the security incidents and fatalities but not abductions, compared with the figures for May 2022.
Accordingly, in the sixth month of the year, we recorded 338 incidents that resulted in 651 abductions and 765 fatalities. These affected 185 Local Government Areas in 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
The report revealed that drastic interventions only reduced fatalities between May and June 2022, but did not positively have an impact on abductions as it showed: “incidents – May (421) and June (338) representing a 19.7% decrease; fatalities – May (913) and June (765) representing a 16.2% decrease, and abduction – May (265) and June (651) representing a 145.7% increase.
”It also said: “A breakdown of these incidents shows 28.6% occurred in the North East geopolitical region (219 fatalities), 23.5% occurred in the North Central geopolitical region (180 fatalities), 23.5% in North West (180 fatalities), South West 10.5% (fatalities 80), South East 9.2% (70 fatalities) and South-South 4.7% (36 fatalities). 75.6% of the fatalities for June 2022 affected the northern half of Nigeria.
“A thematic analysis shows these main incident typologies as responsible: raids by non-state actors, where they targeted rural communities mainly – was responsible for 350 fatalities, combat/crossfire – 183 fatalities, and ambush – 79 fatalities.”
