Niger Delta Weekly Conflict Update: May 12-18, 2024

This special edition of the weekly update spotlights the impact of communal conflicts on agricultural investments in the Niger Delta. Communal conflict over land and other natural resources is a major driver of violence and instability in the region. According to data (see map above), land and natural resource related conflicts caused over 700 fatalities in the Niger Delta between January 2020 and March 2024. Recent data shows that communal land conflict is increasingly taking on different criminal dimensions including targeted abduction and killing of farmers and deliberate destruction of farms and farming infrastructure. In April 2024, for instance, a farmer was allegedly killed and two others abducted by herdsmen at a farm in Abavo community in Ika South LGA, Delta State. In May, a long-standing conflict over an oil palm plantation allegedly intensified communal tensions in Biase LGA, Cross River State. Also, between May 06 and 13, 2024, four employees of an oil palm company were allegedly killed and eight vehicles burned in a series of attacks by ethnic militias in Okomu community in Ovia South-West LGA, Edo State.