Nigeria

Overview

The Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, surging banditry violence in the northwest, incessant farmer/herder conflict in the middle belt and a growing Cameroonian refugee population in the south have all culminated into a complex country crisis for the west African giant. Boko Haram, and its break-out faction ISWAP have continued insurgent activities for over 10 years. The Nigerian military, and the African Union Multinational Joint Task Force have had to contend with suicide bombings, military garrison attacks and arsonic raids on both soft and hard targets. The insurgency has further spread to Niger, Chad and Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin with over 1.8m people internally displaced in Nigeria alone.?

In Nigeria's northwest, activities of bandits in Sokoto, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Zamfara and Katsina states have displaced over 160,000 internally while causing about 41,000 more to flee to Maradi in neighboring Niger Republic.?Bandits engage in killings, kidnappings for ransom, cattle rustling and sexual violence in communities already at the lower ebbs of poverty and development indexes. The discovery of gold reserves in Zamfara means that apart from bandits, security forces have to also contend with activities of illegal miners and NSAGs in the northwest.

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.?

The intensification of Cameroon's Anglophone crisis has pushed more than 60,000 people across the Bakassi peninsula into Nigeria.? These refugees are hosted in Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River and Taraba states. Many of the refugees are in need of food, WASH, health, relief and non-relief materials.

Latest Developments

24/02/2021: Education facilities have been increasingly targeted in the northwest of Nigeria over the past few months. On 17 February, armed men attacked the Government Science College in Kagara, Niger state, and abducted over 40 people, including students. Following the attack, Niger state authorities ordered the temporary closure of all boarding schools in other local government areas for security reasons.?

17/02/2021: The reception centre in Ngala LGA (Borno state) is overwhelmed by an influx of IDPs and returnees. The centre was initially designed to host a maximum of 500 people for not more than 72 hours. Currently it shelters around 1,400 people. Shelter and protection are key priorities for the IDPs.?

05/02/2021: A fire at Fulatari IDP camp in Monguno LGA (Borno state) on 30 January destroyed and damaged some 90 shelters total. 400 people urgently need shelter. Their belongings and some livestock have been destroyed. Food and non-food items including cooking equipment, mattresses, blankets, and mosquito nets are needed.?

ACAPS' team is daily monitoring the impact of COVID-19. Find more information related to the outbreak here.