A series of coordinated attacks on villages in northern Nigeria has killed more than thirty people, according to local authorities, underscoring the country's deepening security crisis. The assaults took place on Tuesday and targeted communities across two of Nigeria's most volatile regions: the northeast and the northwest.

In Borno State — a large northeastern state bordering Chad and Cameroon that has long been the epicentre of jihadist violence — suspected Boko Haram militants attacked the village of Pubagu, killing eleven people and burning homes, shops, and a church. Food supplies were looted in what the local district chief described as an unusually severe strike. "It was one of the places in our area that had never before been attacked so violently," he said, noting that Pubagu had until now been considered a relative safe haven. A further nine people were killed in a separate attack on the village of Mayolade in neighbouring Adamawa State.

In the northwestern state of Zamfara, armed criminal gangs — locally known as bandits — raided two villages, leaving twelve people dead, including three children. Several residents are reported missing. Unlike the northeast, where violence is primarily ideologically driven, the northwest has been plagued by armed groups motivated largely by kidnapping for ransom, cattle rustling, and resource competition, though the boundaries between these groups and jihadist networks have increasingly blurred.

Nigeria's northeast has been destabilised for more than a decade by Boko Haram, a jihadist organisation whose name loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden." A splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has grown in operational capacity in recent years and is now responsible for a growing share of attacks in the region. Nigeria has appealed to foreign partners, including France, for support in addressing what officials describe as a significantly deteriorating security environment.

The breadth of Tuesday's violence — spanning hundreds of kilometres from northeast to northwest — highlights the scale of the challenge facing Nigerian authorities. Civilian communities bear the heaviest toll, with attacks disrupting food supplies, displacing families, and eroding the fragile stability that residents in areas like Pubagu had managed to preserve. Aid organisations have repeatedly warned that recurring violence is compounding an already severe humanitarian crisis in the region.