‘24,816 people killed, 15,597 kidnapped in Nigeria in five years’

SBM: Rising death toll of farmers worsening food insecurity

Data by Global Right Nigeria has said 24,816 people have been killed and 15,597 kidnapped in various incidents of mass atrocities across the country in the last five years.

This is as a new report by S.B Morgan intelligence has revealed that a minimum of 1,356 farmers have been killed, mainly in the Northern part of the country, between 2020 and 2024, while between July 2023 and June 2024, the North experienced significantly more kidnappings, with over 10 times the number of victims compared to the South.

According to the Global Right Nigeria report, over 3.4 million people are currently internally displaced and about 100,000 refugees are in neighbouring countries. In 2023 alone, at least 457,000 people were displaced across Nigeria, with insecurity accounting for 291,000 of these displacements, doubling the 2022 figure of 148,000.

Executive Director of Global Right, Abiodun Bayeiwu, who reeled out the figure at the fifth anniversary of Mass Atrocities’ Summit yesterday in Abuja, said there is serious urgency to act fast to pull Nigeria back from the dangerous precipice she finds herself based on the dangerous dimension of insecurity across the country.

She said: “The sense of urgency that precipitated the first summit on mass atrocities is the sense with which we engage the fifth. The sense that we need to act fast to pull our country back from the dangerous precipice we have found ourselves to becoming prosperous where peace and justice reigns.”

The Chair, Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities, Ken Henshaw, speaking on the dynamics of mass atrocities in Nigeria, mentioned that the worst five states to live in include Plateau, Borno, Benue, Kaduna and Zamfara.

He noted that as days and years pass, the killings have become more daring, more regular and more horrific, raising troubling questions about the sanity and humanity of the perpetrators; but also reinforcing the need to account for the unnecessary death of Nigerians.

The Executive Secretary of the Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, in his keynote address, noted that the landscape of human security in Nigeria is complex and harped on the urgent need for a comprehensive and inclusive approach to address these issues.

SB Morgen (SBM) Intelligence, an Africa-focused consulting firm, said the rising death toll of farmers has worsened Nigeria’s food insecurity crisis. In its report, ‘An August Nightmare: Accessing the Early Days of the #EndBadGovernance Protests in Nigeria’, SBM said insecurity is the second largest challenge farmers face following the poor condition of Nigeria’s roads.

The consulting firm said although hunger and economic hardships impact the entire country, they are considerably more severe in the north. “This region, identified by most available data as having the most insecure states, bears the brunt of these hardships. Bandits and kidnappers have taken over large swathes of territory in the Northwest and Central regions, SBM said.

“In early 2024, SBM found that no less than N139 million was paid as farm levies (including planting and harvesting) to bandits who demanded at least N224 million across the North between 2020 and 2023. In the same period leading up to June 2024, at least 1,356 farmers were killed across the country, with most of the killings occurring in the North.

“These illegal tolls have made it difficult for farmers to access their farms and added to the mounting food insecurity exacerbated by factors such as an unstable currency. Farmers’ concerns and warnings about insecurity date back years before the current protests.”