Nigeria

Overview

In the northeast, the Boko Haram insurgency has affected more than 14 million people, and more than eight million are in need. After 10 years of conflict the group continues to carry out high-profile attacks against the military and civilians in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states. An escalation of Boko Haram attacks has been observed in the last six months in Borno state. Some 800,000 people in northeast Nigeria are entirely inaccessible.?

Violence between herders (also known as pastoralists) and farmers has continued for decades in Nigeria’s Middle Belt states of Taraba, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, and Adamawa. Farmer-herder clashes left more than 1,300 people dead and displaced 300,000 people across the country from January-June 2018. There is a lack of recent available data on the amount of people affected by farmer-herder violence.?

Farmer-herder conflict across the Middle-Belt region and the Boko Haram conflict in northeast Nigeria have severely affected food production systems. The areas most severely affected by food insecurity include Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in northeast Nigeria, where over 2.7 million people are projected to be food insecure (IPC Phases 3-5) in the June-August period.?

INFORM measures Nigeria's risk of humanitarian crisis and disaster to be very high, at 6.8/10.?

Latest Developments

31/07: In Northwest Nigeria (Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara States) increasing violence has triggered large-scale displacement within the states and across the border to Niger. In recent months an estimated 67,000 people have been internally displaced and between April and July 35,000 to 60,000 refugees have crossed the border to the Maradi region in Niger. Rural communities in Northwest Nigeria have been terrorised by bandits who raid villages, stealing cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting food supplies. Since the start of the year hundreds of people have been killed in Northwest Nigeria by bandits. There is limited information on the cause of the recent deterioration in the security situation which has prompted the displacement. The displaced have sought safety among host communities and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Services and infrastructure are limited and there are almost no humanitarian agencies on the ground to assist those displaced.?

27/07: Up to 70 people were killed and 11 injured in a series of attacks by suspected Islamists in Nganzai local government area, Borno state, on 27 July. A group returning from a funeral was first attacked before the Islamists went on to attack Badu Malam Kyariri, Zawa, and Lamisula Bukar Bulala villages, close to the regional capital of Maiduguri. The injured have been taken to a hospital in Maiduguri. The attack is one of the deadliest against on civilians in recent years, indicating a worrying trend in the conflict’s dynamics. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, however the incident bears the hallmarks of Boko Haram. It is likely the attack was revenge for an unsuccessful attack two weeks ago by Boko Haram on another village during which 11 Boko Haram fighters were killed by a vigilante group. It is unclear if the incident has resulted in displacement.?