Along the Sokoto-Zamfara state line, close to the Nigeria-Niger border, the villages of Sabon Birni and Isa have been abandoned. To avoid the same fate, some other villages have tried to strike peace deals with local bandit groups. This comes after years of failed efforts from the Nigerian state to stamp out armed non-state actors from terrorizing rural communities in the northern Nigerian states of Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina.

Numerous villagers who spoke to DW told of family members being abducted and killed. Their livelihoods, which primarily consist of farming sorghum, millet, and livestock, and then trading their produce in nearby market towns, have been severely disrupted. Not only are local families facing a growing food shortage due to farms being abandoned or their harvests being looted, but Nigeria's entire northern region — historically the nation's agricultural heartland — can no longer produce enough food.

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"We have been pleading for peace. We want to live and farm in peace. We have no access to our farms. We have to beg before........

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