The bandits of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, and Kebbi do not operate from mud caves with bows strung from the tree bark. They move in motorcades, hundreds strong, in tactical formations that presuppose intelligence they should not possess — intelligence about troop movements, deployment schedules, and the precise windows of state inattention. They negotiate ransoms through intermediaries who carry telephones, maintain bank accounts, and exist in the traceable world of human transactions. They are not invisible, they are protected.
The anatomy of a managed crisis, By Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú
