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By Chinwendu Obienyi
Benue State, once celebrated as Nigeria’s “food basket,” is now engulfed in a humanitarian and security crisis that has crippled its agriculture and displaced hundreds of thousands, according to a new report by SBM Intelligence.
The report, A Cycle of Carnage: Displacement, Insecurity, and the Failure of Governance in Benue State, which was released on Thursday traces the trajectory of farmer-herder clashes in the state from sporadic, seasonal disputes to what researchers describe as a systematic and year-round campaign of violence.
Between January 2019 and June 2025, SBM documented 287 violent incidents involving armed herders, resulting in at least 2,185 deaths. “Once tied to seasonal migration and farming cycles, the violence has now “shattered its seasonal cycle to become a relentless and escalating humanitarian disaster,” the report said.
Amnesty International estimated that over 500,000 people were internally displaced in Benue as of December 2024. SBM confirmed that displacement has continued into 2025, with particularly heavy impacts in Gwer West, Agatu, Ukum, Kwande, Logo, and Guma LGAs. Many families, the report noted, have been uprooted multiple times since the first mass killings in 2013 and 2014.
At Makurdi’s International Market IDP camp, the report observed overcrowded conditions, with survival dependent on aid from local agencies, Catholic charities, and international NGOs such as Save the Children. It said that the destruction of yam, cassava, maize, rice, and sorghum farms has left livelihoods in ruins and threatens serious implications for both local and national food security.
The report strongly criticised both federal and state responses, highlighting contradictory policies and shrinking security operations. Benue outlawed open grazing in 2017, while the Buhari administration pushed for the controversial RUGA scheme.
Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), a joint military task force launched in 2018 to contain violence in Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau, has since scaled back operations significantly.
SBM’s data links this directly to worsening fatalities: “This surge in attacks has occurred alongside a decline in the operational activities of Operation Whirl Stroke, suggesting a direct correlation between the scaling back of military operations and the rise in fatalities.”
Villagers accuse the military of complicity or inaction. One survivor, Samuel Dende, alleged: “When communities report violations, the military often claims it is not their responsibility.” Others told researchers that herders are sometimes aided by soldiers.
The federal government has consistently framed the violence as farmer-herder clashes. Following the Yelwata massacre, President Bola Tinubu described the killings as “communal disputes” and urged unity.
But traditional leaders have rejected this narrative. The Tor Tiv, James Ayatse II, insisted: “What is happening in Benue is a genocide.”
While focused on Benue, the report situates the killings within Nigeria’s wider security collapse, linking them to Boko Haram’s insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, and separatist violence in the South-East.
Benue, however, stands out as a “complex land-grab crisis facilitated by possibly state-backed ethnic cleansing,” the report warned.
SBM Intelligence concluded: “This is not a simple farmer-herder dispute but a profound national security challenge demanding a decisive shift in approach.”
