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

30/06/2020: Four aid workers and one private security worker have been abucted in Borno state. The abducted aid workers said they work for Action Against Hunger (Action Contre le Faim/ACF), the International Rescue Committee, and REACH. The IRC and ACF have stated they are working to secure the release of their workers. REACH has not yet commented. All the hostages are Nigerian nationals.?

26/06/2020: Heavy rains and windstorms have caused damage to IDP camps in Maiduguri, Borno state. On 22 June, 198 emergency shelters were destroyed in the Teachers Village IDP camp, leaving 1,084 displaced people homeless. On 17 June, windstorms damaged about 15 makeshift shelters in the Gubio IDP camp in Konduga LGA, while over 17 IDP camps in Maiduguri, Jere and konduga LGAs were affected by windstorms that occurred on 14 June.?

18/06/2020: Insurgent attacks in Nigeria’s northeast and banditry violence in the northwest have intensified. From 8-15 June, some 75 people were killed by banditry attacks in the northwestern city of Katsina, prompting intense protests by the city’s population against the inability of government and security agencies to protect them. Banditry attacks in Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto have internally displaced over 200,000 people, with 60,000 refugees fleeing to Maradi, Niger. In the northeast, insurgent attacks on 9 and 13 June in Faduma Koloram, Monguno, and Goni Usmanti resulted in 141 civilian deaths and 20 military fatalities. In Monguno, which hosts 150,000 IDPs, militants attacked a humanitarian hub, torching all the INGO vehicles. Around 50 aid workers were present, with none injured or killed. Continued attacks in the region are likely to increase insecurity, displacement, and food insecurity in affected areas.?

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