Nigerian security forces quietly detained seven men at the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua International Airport in Katsina (a northern Nigerian state long plagued by militant violence and mass kidnappings) as they returned from the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, the country's Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo announced. The suspects, described as commanders of the jihadist groups Boko Haram and ISWAP (the Islamic State West Africa Province), were transferred under armed escort to Abuja and handed over to the State Security Service, though no identities or formal charges have been made public. The arrests, while hailed by the government as a demonstration of improved biometric border technology, have raised uncomfortable questions about how the men — who travelled on valid Nigerian passports through the country's official Hajj registration system — were ever allowed to leave Nigeria in the first place.