Nigerian media report Ansaru leaders plead guilty in terrorism case

Two leaders of the Nigerian jihadist group Ansaru pleaded guilty on Monday in a 32-count terrorism case, local media reported.

The government-owned News Agency of Nigeria reported that Mahmud Muhammad Usman and fellow commander Mahmud al-Nigeri changed their pleas from not guilty in a case that had been running since September 2025.

The Abuja-based Premium Times reported that Federal High Court judge Emeka Nwite gave each man two life sentences, along with a series of 20-year penalties.

Usman had already pleaded guilty last year to an illegal mining charge. Until Monday, he had been contesting the other 31 counts, which included charges linked to making explosive devices and terrorism financing.

Nigeria has faced an insurgency since 2009, led mainly by Boko Haram and the rival Islamic State West Africa Province, while smaller groups including Ansaru have also spread across the country.

President Bola Tinubu blamed Ansaru for the kidnapping of schoolchildren in southwestern Oyo state in May. Ansaru is a splinter group of Boko Haram known to operate in central Nigeria and into the southwest. The group has also been implicated in a major 2022 prison break in Kuje, near Abuja, and an attack the same year on a train travelling from Abuja to Kaduna.

Ansaru, also known as Jama'atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, was formed in 2012 and later aligned itself with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The arrests of Usman and al-Nigeri were announced in August 2025. The government said they had been captured in a raid earlier that year. Usman is also known as Abu Bara, and al-Nigeri as Mallam Mamuda.

The president's office accused the two men of involvement in several high-profile kidnappings in central and northwestern Nigeria and of organising armed robberies. It said they used the proceeds to finance terrorism.

The Oyo kidnapping led to protests and pressure on the government. Before that attack, many people had believed such violence was contained to northern Nigeria, where the jihadist insurgency is concentrated.