Conflict between farmers and herdsmen has uprooted large numbers of people across the Middle Belt states of Nigeria—Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, and Taraba—causing a serious humanitarian crisis. The conflict, while multi-layered and complex, is in large part driven by competition for food, water, and other resources. Some of the underlying causes include environmental degradation and the impacts of climate change, such as desertification, reducing available fertile land. Migratory herders are being pushed ever further south in search of land where their cattle can graze. Ongoing violence and insecurity in traditional grazing areas in the north are also forcing many herders to flee. The land that herders settle on, however, is claimed by farmers.
In 2018, a sudden violent escalation of previously seasonal clashes between herdsmen and farmers forced an estimated 300,000 people from their homes and killed 1,300. At least 160,000 displaced people are scattered across Benue state alone, according to the latest available estimates. Here, displaced communities, mostly farmers, live in one of eight official camps, or in informal camps or settlements, or stay with families in the host community (meaning people who were already settled in the area). These official estimates do not include the many thousands more people who have been displaced in 2020. In addition, there are more than 58,400 Cameroonian refugees living in Nigeria—mostly in Middle Belt states; more than 8,000 of them live in Benue.