By Zainab Ahmed
BENUE STATE, NIGERIA- located in Nigeria’s North Central (Middle Belt) region, has been at the epicenter of the escalating farmer-herder conflict, with attacks by armed herders becoming a devastating and persistent security challenge. The state, often called the “Food Basket of the Nation” due to its rich agricultural land, has seen the violence transform from sporadic clashes over resources into a protracted crisis of killings, displacement, and livelihood destruction.
Widespread outrage continues to trail the incessant killings in Nigeria, particularly in Benue State, where armed marauders have intensified violent attacks on rural communities killing more than 17 people in the last one month.
The conflict in Benue is not monocausal; it stems from a complex interplay of environmental, demographic, and political factors. Despite this international attention, the attacks have not abated. Instead, the perpetrators appear emboldened, launching fresh assaults on vulnerable communities in Benue State. However, the attacks had no religious undertones but just armed herders attacking indigens.
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The fundamental driver is the competition over shrinking land and water resources. Increased desertification and climate change in Nigeria’s far north push nomadic herders (predominantly Fulani) southward into Benue, where the fertile land and water sources of the Benue Valley attract them. This movement directly clashes with the interests of the settled, predominantly Tiv farming communities.
A burgeoning population intensifies the struggle, as cultivated land expands, encroaching on traditional cattle grazing routes and water points.
In 2017, the Benue State government enacted the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law to restrict open grazing and promote ranching. This law, while supported by farmers as a necessary protection, was largely rejected by herders who saw it as a deliberate effort to destroy their way of life. The law’s implementation served as a significant trigger for further violent clashes and reprisal attacks.
The conflict has been made deadlier by the increasing sophistication of weapons used by both armed herders and local militias, turning minor disputes into mass casualty events.
The Human and Socio-Economic Toll
The attacks in Benue have created a profound humanitarian crisis, effectively making violence a part of daily life for rural communities:
Thousands of lives have been lost in the conflict since 2015. A 2018 study reported over 2,400 people killed and nearly 100,000 households displaced between 2013 and 2018 alone. The violence has created one of Nigeria’s largest populations of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who rely on overcrowded camps for survival, often fearing further attacks.
The destruction of crops and the inability of farmers to access their land for planting or harvesting due to insecurity have severely impacted the state’s agricultural output. This poses a threat to national food security, as Benue is a major supplier of food produce.
The violence has led to the destruction of property worth billions of Naira, the collapse of local markets, and a significant disruption of the state’s predominantly agrarian economy.
While analysts caution that the root cause is resource-based, the predominantly Christian sedentary farmers clashing with predominantly Muslim nomadic herders has deepened ethnic and religious fault lines, with some local leaders describing the attacks as an intentional “genocidal invasion” aimed at land grabbing.
Despite efforts by the state and federal governments, the violence remains persistent:
The government has deployed security forces to conflict zones and established commissions of inquiry. However, these efforts have often been insufficient to curb the attacks.
The effectiveness of the government’s response is widely debated, with critics pointing to a lack of political will, inadequate enforcement of the anti-grazing law, and the occasional suggestion of collusion by security forces as factors fueling the violence.
The scale of the killings and displacement in Benue and other Middle Belt states has drawn international attention, with some foreign entities calling for sanctions on Nigeria over its failure to protect citizens, particularly Christians, in the region.
The security crisis in Benue State underscores the challenge of balancing the competing economic and cultural needs of Nigeria’s diverse populations against the backdrop of environmental stress and weak governance.
