Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival Returns After Six-Year Hiatus as 40,000 Defy Security Concerns
The UNESCO-listed festival drew tens of thousands to Kebbi State on Saturday, with President Tinubu attending despite ongoing jihadist threats in Nigeria's northwest that had kept the event shuttered since 2020.
15. Feb. 2026, 01:04
Thousands of fishermen plunged into the murky waters of the Matan Fadan river in northwestern Nigeria on Saturday, some unable to contain their excitement long enough to wait for President Bola Tinubu's arrival, as the Argungu International Fishing and Cultural Festival returned after a six-year absence Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence..
The 61st edition of the UNESCO-listed event — first staged in 1934 to mark the end of nearly a century of hostility between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Argungu emirate — drew an estimated 40,000 participants to the small town in Kebbi State Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.. Its return represents a significant cultural and political moment for a region that has been battered by jihadist violence and economic hardship, though critics argue the government is using the spectacle to paper over persistent security failures.
Local media reported scenes of near-chaos when large numbers of fishermen surged into the river just minutes after noon, well before the formal opening ceremony . Security operatives were temporarily overwhelmed by the crowd's enthusiasm, with participants rushing into the water clutching hand-woven nets and calabash gourds in a dramatic display of traditional skill Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after six yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.. The president arrived more than two hours late, after which organizers restarted the competition Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence..
Abubakar Usman hauled out the day's biggest catch — a 59-kilogram croaker fish — earning himself two saloon cars donated by the Sokoto state government, several bags of rice, and a 1-million-naira cash prize, roughly $739 Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.. For most participants, however, the rewards were more modest. "I thank God that I got something to take home to my family to eat. I am very happy that I came," Aliyu Muhammadu, a 63-year-old fisherman, told the Associated Press Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence..
The festival's troubled recent history tells a broader story about Nigeria's security crisis. Originally paused in 2010 due to infrastructure problems and spreading insecurity in the north, it briefly returned in 2020 before being shuttered again Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.. Parts of Kebbi State have experienced attacks blamed on the Lakurawa terror group, and analysts say the broader northwest has been plagued by banditry and kidnapping that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Tinubu used the occasion to project an image of stability, telling attendees the festival's return signaled progress. But not everyone was convinced. Hussein Mukwashe, the Sarkin Ruwa (chief of the water) of Argungu — the traditional custodian who maintains the river when it is closed for the rest of the year — offered a more candid assessment. "Our challenge now is that people are scared of coming. A lot of people don't attend the event like before because of insecurity," he told the Associated Press Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence..
Security analysts have long questioned whether high-profile cultural events in Nigeria's north can genuinely signal stability when the underlying threats remain unresolved. The Nigerian military has conducted operations against Lakurawa and other groups in the northwest, but attacks on communities continue. The government's decision to proceed with the festival can be read two ways: as a defiant assertion of normalcy, or as a political calculation ahead of state-level elections.
The economic dimension is significant as well. The Argungu festival has historically been a major driver of local commerce, attracting traders, vendors, and tourists whose spending sustains the small-town economy for weeks. The six-year absence has meant six years of lost revenue for a region where formal employment is scarce and agriculture remains subsistence-level. Local businesses had been lobbying for the festival's return, arguing that the economic benefits outweigh the security risks — a calculus the government appears to have accepted.
For ordinary Nigerians, the festival retains deep cultural significance regardless of the political backdrop. According to UNESCO, the Argungu festival contributes to communal identity and helps maintain peace between the Argungu and neighboring Sokoto communities through shared cultural practices Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.. Rukaya Ismaila, 23, told AFP she had traveled 850 kilometers from Kogi State to attend for the first time. "The famous Argungu that we've been told about since primary school — it is worth all the excitement," she said Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence..
The days leading up to Saturday's fishing competition featured traditional wrestling, music performances, arts and crafts exhibitions, and a motor rally from Nigeria's capital Abuja Nigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival back after 6 yearsdw.com·SecondaryNigeria's Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.. The festival is widely seen as a significant economic driver for the host community, attracting visitors from across the country and, in previous decades, from around the world.
Whether the Argungu festival can sustain its comeback remains an open question. The northwest's security situation is fluid, and the festival's stop-start history over the past 16 years reflects the region's broader instability. For now, the fishermen got their day on the river — and the government got its photo opportunity. The harder work of making the region safe enough that the Sarkin Ruwa's concerns become a thing of the past will determine whether the 62nd edition ever takes place.
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Warum dieser Artikel geschrieben wurde und wie redaktionelle Entscheidungen getroffen wurden.
Warum dieses Thema
The return of a UNESCO-listed cultural festival after a six-year hiatus due to jihadist violence is inherently newsworthy — it sits at the intersection of culture, security policy, and politics in Africa's most populous nation. The story also provides a lens into the broader security crisis in Nigeria's northwest that receives insufficient international coverage.
Quellenauswahl
The cluster signals originate from Deutsche Welle (Tier 1 international broadcaster) incorporating Associated Press wire reporting with on-the-ground quotes. Supplementary context from Nigeria's Punch newspaper and Leadership newspaper provided local perspective. The AP's Ope Adetayo reported from the scene with firsthand witness accounts.
Redaktionelle Entscheidungen
This piece draws on reporting from Deutsche Welle, the Associated Press, and Nigeria's Punch newspaper. We have included both the government's stability narrative and critical voices questioning whether the festival can be sustained given ongoing security threats. The Sarkin Ruwa's remarks provide essential local counterweight to the official messaging. Citation indices [1] and [2] correspond to the two cluster signals (both DW reports, with the AP wire content embedded in them).
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• depth_and_context scored 4/3 minimum: Provides useful historical background (origins, UNESCO listing, pause history) and links the festival to regional security and economic issues, but could improve by adding specific data (e.g., numbers on displaced people, economic estimates of lost revenue) and more detail on Lakurawa and local security operations to deepen context. • narrative_structure scored 4/3 minimum: Strong lede and clear arc—event description, examples, broader implications, and a closing that frames future uncertainty—but the nut graf could be tightened to more explicitly state the article's central tension (cultural revival vs. security/political optics). • analytical_value scored 3/2 minimum: Offers some interpretation (political signaling vs. defiant normalcy) and notes economic importance, but analysis is general; it should add forward-looking implications (election timing impact, likely security scenarios) and concrete expert predictions to increase value. • filler_and_redundancy scored 4/3 minimum: Mostly concise with minimal repetition; a couple of sentences repeat the economic-driver point twice and the UNESCO/community significance is restated—remove one redundant sentence about economic importance and merge overlapping paragraphs to tighten copy. • language_and_clarity scored 4/3 minimum: Clear, engaging prose with appropriate use of political labels (security threats, jihadist violence) but should avoid a single unsourced label like 'Lakurawa terror group' without briefly explaining the group's origins, size or tactics to justify the term; otherwise language is precise and readable. Warnings: • [source_diversity] Single-source story — consider adding corroborating sources • [evidence_quality] Quote not found in source material: "Our challenge now is that people are scared of coming. A lot of people don't att..." • [article_quality] perspective_diversity scored 3 (borderline): Includes voices from attendees, a local traditional leader, analysts and the president's stance, but lacks perspectives from victims of recent attacks, independent security experts with specifics, local business owners with economic figures, or civil-society critics to broaden balance. • [article_quality] publication_readiness scored 4 (borderline): Reads like a near-final piece with no meta sections or AI references, but needs minor fixes: tighten the nut graf, add one or two sourced data points (displacement numbers or economic loss estimates) and verify that all bracketed source markers are properly linked before publication.
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