AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF BANDITRY ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SELECTED AREAS OF KADUNA STATE

Abstract

The study investigates the implication of banditry on women and children in Kaduna state with particular focus on four local government areas. This is because of the preponderance and devastating impact of this criminal enterprise in the selected case studies. Banditry in Kaduna state has features like kidnapping, cattle rustling, indiscriminate attacks on communities, destruction of lives and property. In complex security situations like banditry when social services are rolled back, women and children bear the brunt. It is against this backdrop that the study undertakes a micro assessment of banditry with particular focus on women and children. Relying on the use of primary and secondary sources generated from eye with accounts, newspaper reports, journals and books, the paper adopted the descriptive and narrative method of historical reconstruction. Finding reveals that the changing trend in banditry has direct link to proliferation in small arms, presence of large swath of ungoverned forests, revolution in technology and so on. It also revealed that the activities of bandits have devastating effects on women and children in the area of socioeconomic activities, gender based sexual violence, mental and physical health implication, displacement, increase in the number of out of school children, diseases and so on. The paper concludes that the effect of banditry on women has pushed them to role reversal in their traditional gender roles which has further exacerbated their vulnerability