A new security tracker by HumAngle reveals a harrowing surge in violence across Nigeria, with 624 people killed and 419 abducted in February 2026 despite a slight dip in the total number of recorded incidents.
Nigeria’s security landscape deteriorated sharply in February 2026, with a nearly 30 percent increase in fatalities compared to the previous month. According to a security tracker report compiled by HumAngle’s Research and Data Department and obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at least 624 people were killed and 419 others were abducted within the 28-day period. The surge in deaths—up from 481 in January—occurred despite a marginal 3.5 percent decrease in the total number of documented insecurity incidents, which stood at 136 for the month. Researchers Abdussamad Ahmad Yusuf and Abdullahi Abubakar noted that terror-related attacks and organized armed violence accounted for more than half of all recorded security breaches nationwide.
The North-West region emerged as the epicenter of the crisis, recording 44 separate incidents as armed banditry and terror attacks continue to spread. The North-Central followed closely with 40 incidents, while the North-East, the traditional theater of the Boko Haram insurgency, documented 24. Southern Nigeria was not spared, with 28 incidents split across the South-South, South-West, and South-East. At the state level, Zamfara remains the most volatile territory in the federation with 19 recorded incidents, followed by Benue with 15 and Borno with 12.
The report paints a “grim picture of the worsening security situation across the country,” emphasizing that the drop in the frequency of attacks has not translated into safety, as the lethality of individual encounters has grown. In states like Plateau and Kebbi, which saw nine and eight incidents respectively, the data highlights a persistent pattern of communal clashes and targeted kidnappings. As these figures circulate, there is mounting pressure on security agencies to address the tactical shifts by armed groups that have allowed death tolls to rise even as the total volume of attacks shows a slight statistical decline.
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