INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS) ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS |Volume VIII Issue II February 2024 Page 2511 www.rsisinternational.org From Chibok Girls to Kankara Boys: An Overview of Parameters Surrounding the Kidnapping of Kankara School Children in Katsina State, Nigeria 1987-2019[1] Ibrahim Sani Kankara Ph.D 1 , Fatima Abdullahi Ph.D 2 1 Department of History, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria 2 Department of History and Security Studies, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina, Nigeria DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.802180 Received: 01 February 2024; Revised: 16 February 2024 Accepted: 21 February 2024; Published: 27 March 2024 ABSTRACT This paper account for the history of arm conflict between the herdsmen and farmers in southern Katsina Emirate. The kidnapping of Chibok Girls in 2014 was an eye opener to the bandits associated with the kidnapping of school children across the states of Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kebbi and Niger. Scholars generally associate the present stage of conflict between the farmers and fulani herdsmen as the root caused of the present spede of kidnapping and cattle rustling that affects the the north-western states of Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto states. The paper argues that the banditry in Katsina state especially Kankara areas in particular pre-date the present state of kidnapping in the area. Kidnapping of 344 children of Government Science Secondary School Kankara on the 11 th December 2020, marked a landmark in the history of arm conflict affecting the area and other communities bordering the forest of Katsina and Zamfara States. This paper argues that the Boko Haram (BH) insurgency, environmental and other social parameters greatly contribute to the spate of kidnapping in the area. INTRODUCTION The focus of this paper is on the contemporary security challenge affecting the North western states of Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Sokoto states. The security challenges of Kidnapping and Cattle rustling permutated by the armed Fulani bandits and other like mind criminals in the forest areas of these states could best be understood from the historical context of the armed conflict that exists in the area. Historically, conflict is a universal phenomenon that evolves in various magnitudes. The interest of conflict actors at all levels is seldom in tandem with one another, even in the presence of interdependency and common goal. Apparently, scarce natural resources create competitive social arrangement which often trigger animosity among people of divergent cultures and even those with common cultural traits. Population out boost in an agrarian society means more demand for agricultural land “which also have alternative and competitive use” (Soomiyol and Fadairo,2020). Ostensibly, this is the case of the conflict between herders and farmers in Nigeria as it emanated from conglomeration of incidences ranging from natural to socio – cultural and economic indices. Whenever there is presence of multi-ethnic identities coupling multiple social, cultural and religious affiliations, frequent resource-based violence is usually the offspring. This illuminates the rationale of herders’ farmers clash to be more prevalent in the core North than other part of the country (Mawoliand Adamu,2020). Thus, the clash between herders and farmers in Nigeria is of the same age with agricultural practice in the country. The Fulani ethnic comprises of a large group of people rearing livestock, internally divided, predominantly