On June 20, 2026, Fulani bandit leader Bello Turji released a video celebrating the killing of soldiers after terrorists attacked Bargaja community in Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State. He stated, “God willing, Allah has granted us victory over those who have been rustling our livestock and killing our innocent brothers in Isa, Zamfara, Sokoto State, Sabon Birni and other local government areas around.”

In the same video, Turji addressed the possibility of peace talks. He said, “If the government is ready for negotiation, we are also ready for negotiation. But if they want to continue with force, we are prepared. Our fighters are ready for whatever comes.” He added, “We are ready for peace, but if they choose war, we are also ready. We will defend ourselves.”

The following day, a Nigerian Army patrol was ambushed near Bargaja using a roadside IED. At least four soldiers were reportedly killed, although military authorities have not officially confirmed the figure.

Also on June 21, intelligence reports surfaced that Turji loyalists, including associates identified as Illa Manawa and Dodo, who is believed to be Turji’s younger brother, were conducting weapons training and tactical drills along the Sokoto-Zamfara border corridor. The activity reportedly stretched from Bingabale Kudu through Bafarawa East to Bargaja. According to the reports, the group was using newly acquired sophisticated weapons.

Intelligence coordinator Basharu Altine warned that coordinated attacks may be planned against local government headquarters before the peak of the rainy season.

These attacks mark the latest chapter in nearly a decade of organized violence by one of Nigeria’s most wanted men.

Named Muhammadu Bello at birth, Turji rose to become one of the most feared terror kingpins in Nigeria, operating from hideouts in Zamfara and Sokoto states. He goes by several names, including Bello Gudde, Bello Kachalla, and Bello Turji Kachalla.

Born and raised in the pastoral Fulani settlements of the Shinkafi community in Zamfara State, he became a champion among Fulani youths because of his hostility toward tribes and groups he believed looked down on the Fulani and their cattle. He fought local farmers in Shinkafi before joining a Fulani militia under the leadership of Buharin Daji, the most dangerous such leader in Zamfara and other northwestern states from 2011 to 2018. Daji is now deceased.

Turji operates in a region where militant violence is deeply entrenched. Twelve northern Nigerian states have implemented Sharia law since 1999. Groups invoking Islam to commit acts of violence, including Boko Haram and ISWAP, have severely restricted religious practice by Christians, Muslims, and traditional religious communities across the Middle Belt and northeast. These groups have attacked religious sites, kidnapped and killed religious leaders, and in some cases demanded jizya, a compulsory tax on non-Muslims, while invoking Sharia law as justification.

Turji was mentored by Halilu Subutu and Shehu Rekeb, two senior bandit commanders he respected for their coordination and cross-border connections with Sahelian jihadist networks spanning Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Subutu, the more prominent of the two, was killed by the Nigerian Army on September 13, 2024. Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff later cited his death publicly as a template for Turji’s eventual fate.

Those inherited cross-border connections explain the regional logistics network Turji operates today, including the arms pipelines and foreign fighter movements that Nigerian and U.S. forces have since been targeting.

He built his criminal network with members of his close family, most of them orphans. Most of his fighters came from communities whose livelihoods had been disrupted by Nigerian authorities and the civilian joint task force known as the Yan Sakai. Turji and his associates began funding the group by rustling cattle to buy weapons.

He then leveraged his youth and connections to recruit young Fulani combatants from camps across Zamfara, including Zurmi, Sabon Birni, Anka, and other communities. His headquarters is situated between Tozai and Suruddubu, a location chosen to allow him to unite with Halilu Subutu and extend operations across the Nigeria-Niger border.

The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point found that by 2021 Turji had received overtures over the phone from ISWAP, which was looking to cement some form of cooperation. Those overtures went nowhere. Turji strongly denied having any relationship with jihadis, saying of his gang “we are not a religious movement,” and demonstrated little knowledge of Islam or political happenings outside the northwest, suggesting his worldview has not been seriously shaped by jihadi contacts.

The Jamestown Foundation concluded as of July 2025 that Turji remains a major security threat but not a likely jihadist proxy or partner, that his lack of any coherent ideology should be viewed as a symptom of lawlessness in Nigeria’s northwest, and that there are few signs his bandits will link up with JNIM or Ansaru.

His operations are nevertheless systematic and expansive. Turji commands more than 1,000 fighters and is among approximately 30,000 radicalized bandits who have wrecked the agricultural economy of Nigeria’s northwestern states by forcing farmers into paying protection fees. His fighters demand up to 50 million naira (approximately $25,000) per community in exchange for allowing farmers to return to normal life.

If the fee is not paid, his fighters may kill the farmers and their families. He has also funded operations through ransom collected from families of kidnapped victims and taxes imposed on farming communities across the northwest. Thousands of people have been killed or kidnapped in northwest Nigeria due to his activities.

His record of violence is extensive. In July 2021, Turji took more than 200 people hostage, killed 63, and set over 338 houses ablaze in Shinkafi in an attempt to compel security forces to release his father, who had been detained by Nigerian security agencies. The government ultimately had to send a mediator to hand over Turji’s father in exchange for the release of the hostages.

He escaped military airstrikes on multiple occasions aimed at killing him. In September 2024, a video surfaced showing Turji and his fighters celebrating after two Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles belonging to the Nigerian Army were burnt in Kwashabawa, Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State, with the bandits displaying the destroyed vehicles while chanting victory slogans.

In January 2025, suspected members of Turji’s group abducted 10 passengers and set their vehicle ablaze along the Kaura Namoda–Shinkafi Road in Zamfara State, shortly after the Defence Headquarters declared Turji “a dead man walking.” In March 2026, troops from the 8 Division Strike Force advanced into Kagara Forest, a known stronghold of Turji’s faction in the Fakai axis of Shinkafi Local Government Area, Zamfara State. Before they could engage the bandits, they encountered a heavily armed ambush launched from elevated positions and dense forest cover.

The Nigerian government has issued multiple designations and military directives against him. In November 2022, the Defence Headquarters released a list of 19 most wanted terrorist kingpins including Turji, identified as Bello Turji Gudda from Fakai Village, Shinkafi LGA, Zamfara State, and placed a N5 million bounty on his head. In March 2024, the DHQ expanded that list to 97 persons, again naming Turji among 43 individuals wanted in the northwest zone.

In October 2024, then-Minister of Defence Mohammed Abubakar Badaru directed troops of Operation Fansan Yamma to capture Turji. Addressing assembled troops in Gusau, he said, “Please get me Turji, dead or alive.”

Military operations have degraded his command structure without neutralizing him. In January 2025, troops neutralized Turji’s second-in-command Aminu Kanawa, inflicted injuries on his younger brother Dosso and close ally Danbokolo, and eliminated several key commanders including Abu Dan Shehu, Jabbi Dogo, Dan Kane, Basiru Yellow, Kabiru Gebe, and Bello Buba.

On May 18, 2025, Turji’s logistics chief Shaudo Alku was killed in an airstrike by the Air Component of Operation Fasan Yama near Tunfa Primary School in Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State.

Turji survived U.S. airstrikes in December 2025, sustaining only a minor injury. The operation allegedly involved Tomahawk missiles launched from a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Gulf of Guinea, striking three districts in Sokoto State: Isa, Tangaza, and Tambuwal. Sources said the strikes were focused on Lakurawa and did not target Boko Haram or Ansaru. Following the strikes, Turji launched a fresh offensive to seize control of communities in Sokoto State’s eastern district.

As of June 22, 2026, intelligence reports confirmed by the Nigerian Army indicate that Turji’s network is undergoing a significant rearmament and expansion. Fighters loyal to Turji are conducting military-style drills and weapons training. The equipment delivered to their camps includes night-vision devices, and newly recruited fighters with advanced combat experience have been brought in to reinforce the network. Suspected commanders Haru Dole and Ibrahim Chimo have been linked to the procurement and movement of the weapons.

A local security leader in Sokoto State further alleged, in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, that Turji is collaborating with Boko Haram elements to train new fighters, a claim that, if verified, would mark a significant escalation in Turji’s operational posture and a direct contradiction of his long-stated rejection of jihadist alliances.

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