The sun is setting in a dust-filled haze here in the scorching plains of northwestern Nigeria,

and hundreds have gathered in an outdoor amphitheater in the city of Katzinnah to watch

Dembe traditional northern Nigerian boxing.

On a race platform two fighters stand in a ring of sand, their wiry stripped to the waist.

The left arms are tightly wrapped with rope, that's their hitting arm, and they're sizing

each other up, poised to attack, and suddenly the fighting begins.

The fights can appear brutal, but rules apply, and they do show that life in the city still

beats to its traditional rhythm.

For in the countryside just beyond a very different kind of fight is taking place, a fight

that's deadly in which it seems there are no rules.

Where heavily armed criminal gangs of bandits, some hundred strong attack villagers, ambush

vehicles killing and kidnapping men, women and children.

Nigerians new leaders in waiting have promised to end in security around the country, and

the bandit threat is one of the priorities.

So how is the state battling bandits, and what does it say about the future of security

in Africa's most populous nation?

I'm Alex Last, and welcome to assignment from the BBC World Service, and I should warn

you, this program contains descriptions of violence.

We had finished working on the farm, getting ready to come back, when the bandits with guns

arrived on motorbikes.

One morning a few months ago, not far from the city of Katzinnah, Jibril was out in the

fields with his dad and brother farming their small plot of land.

...