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

05/01/2021: On 11 December, armed men attacked the Government Science Secondary School for boys in Kankara (Katsina state, northwest Nigeria) and kidnapped an unknown number of students. More than 300 students were rescued the following week. It is not clear whether all students have been released. Boko Haram, who usually operates in Nigeria’s northeastern states, claimed the attack. Secondary schools were subsequently closed in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, and Jigawa states. Attacks targeting students and schools constrain access to education and highlight the need for secure education facilities and protection for students in states affected by violence and conflict. In Nigeria, 10.5 million children aged 5–14 years are out of school. The situation in the north is of particular concern, as only 53% of children aged 6–11 years regularly attend primary school.?

08/12/2020: On 28 November, an attack claimed by Boko Haram killed at least 70 civilians who were harvesting in the village of Koshobo and rural communities in Jere LGA, Borno state. Many others are still missing. Attacks on farmers and fishermen impact access to livelihoods and deteriorate food security. In Borno, over 1.8 million people are currently facing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or higher levels of food insecurity.?

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