Nigeria — Transhumance Tracking Tool Report — Early Warning Dashboard 4 (April 2022)

In recent years, competing claims to natural resources have grown with reports of violent clashes between farmers and herders communities in Adamawa state of Nigeria. The TTT Early Warning monitors transhumant movements and identifies the pattern of alerts that are related to the use of natural resources between farmers and herders. The TTT data collection engages a network of selected Key informants from the Community Response Network (CRN) and LGA-based team leads.

During the month of April 2022, the TTT Early Warning tool captured 285 alerts. The triangulated alerts include 257 (90%) events and 28 (10%) massive/late movements. The recent event alerts were compounded by the rise in the incidences of the burning of farmlands after harvest to create a scarcity of pasture for grazing as well as to discourage the herders grazing on farmland, potentially leading to conflict in the LGAs such as Demsa.

The event alerts spread across 73 per cent of the wards in the 5 operational LGAs. The percentages of the event alerts in each LGAs are Demsa (35%), Numan (24%), Lamurde (18%), Girei (9%), and Mayo-Belwa (5%). For instance, in Lamurde and Numan LGAs, there are reported cases of crop destruction and underage-herders grazing respectively. It is also reported that 9 per cent of the events resulted in casualties or injuries, while less than one per cent of events led to displacements of populations. The highest number of casualties or injuries are reported from Girei followed by Demsa and Lamurde LGAs.

The early warning data indicated some localities where the potential event could occur. As shown on the map, Demsa, Fufore, Jada, Ganye, Hong, Mayo-Belwa, Numan, Toungo, and Yola South LGAs are the potential risk areas in relation to late and massive movements. In Mayo-Belwa LGA more movement alerts were reported than other operational LGAs, mainly because Mayo-Belwa is traversed by the major North-south axis transhumance corridor. In addition, transhumant groups use the Gongoshi grazing reserve as a resting point on their way to and from Toungo LGA where they stay during dry season grazing.

The reported alerts were in many cases, identified, discussed, and on many instances intervened upon during the Community Response Network (CRN), Community Security Architecture Dialogue (CSAD), and Peace Architecture Dialogue (PAD) meetings in order to diffuse escalating tensions and conflicts in the affected community areas.