Nigeria Trafficking Map (III): Zamfara Records 3,850% Increase, Borno 2,670% As Edo Drops 57%

…FCT Records Only 22 Victims In 11 Years

…Edo Retains Highest 11-Year Total Despite 57% Decline

This is the ultimate a part of a three-part investigation primarily based on 11 years of NAPTIP knowledge obtained by THE WHISTLER by means of an FOI request.

For about twenty years, Edo State was one in all Nigeria’s most outstanding trafficking hotspots, and the victims had been largely trafficked by means of Libya to Italy.

Eleven years of information from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), nevertheless, present a shift in the place the company is discovering victims.

While the variety of victims recorded from Edo fell 57 per cent from its 2017 peak, Zamfara recorded a 3,850 per cent enhance between 2015 and 2025, whereas Borno’s determine rose by 2,670 per cent. Benue additionally recorded a pointy enhance.

The figures don’t clarify what’s driving these adjustments.

They additionally expose gaps within the company’s information, together with within the Federal Capital Territory, the place NAPTIP recorded solely 22 victims over 11 years regardless of THE WHISTLER documenting kids working in unlawful gold mines in Kwali Area Council.

NAPTIP recorded 2,584 trafficking victims nationwide in 2025, in line with knowledge supplied to THE WHISTLER. But the determine captures solely victims recognized by the company, leaving unanswered what number of others might have remained exterior its information.

Edo’s Decline: From 353 Victims To 150

Edo recorded its highest variety of trafficking victims in 2017, when NAPTIP documented 353 victims. By 2025, the determine had fallen to 150, representing a 57 per cent decline from the height.

The state nonetheless has the best cumulative variety of victims within the 11-year dataset, with greater than 1,700 recorded through the interval. Its figures additionally rose in 2022 and 2025, though they remained under the 2017 degree.

For the interval beneath evaluation, trafficking from Edo to Italy by means of Libya drew consideration. Young ladies had been recruited by traffickers, typically positioned beneath debt preparations, and brought to European cities the place they had been exploited in intercourse work.

The 11-year information don’t clarify why Edo’s figures have fallen. They additionally don’t set up whether or not the decline displays a discount in trafficking, adjustments in migration routes, higher or weaker detection, or a mixture of things.

NAPTIP recorded 2,584 victims nationwide in 2025, its highest annual determine for the reason that 2022 whole of two,883.

The fall in Edo’s numbers due to this fact coincides with sharp will increase in another states, significantly Borno and Zamfara.

Borno: Victims Rise From 10 To 277

Borno recorded 10 trafficking victims in 2015. By 2025, the quantity had risen to 277, a rise of two,670 per cent.

The state has spent greater than a decade on the centre of the Boko Haram insurgency and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) operations. Conflict has displaced tens of millions of individuals, whereas ladies and kids have confronted abduction, pressured marriage and different types of exploitation.

NAPTIP’s information additionally comprise 29 circumstances of procurement or recruitment to be used in armed conflicts over the 11-year interval. But the info equipped to THE WHISTLER doesn’t present a state-by-state breakdown, making it not possible to find out what number of of these circumstances had been linked to Borno.

Zamfara: A 3,850% Increase

Zamfara recorded simply 2 trafficking victims in 2015. By 2025, the determine had climbed to 79, representing a 3,850 per cent enhance.

The rise grew to become pronounced in 2020, when the quantity elevated from 2 to 32.

Zamfara can be one in all Nigeria’s main centres of unlawful gold mining, an trade that has raised considerations about baby labour, prison networks and the exploitation of susceptible communities.

The NAPTIP knowledge doesn’t set up a connection between Zamfara’s rising trafficking figures and unlawful mining.