By Taofeek Oyedokun

Copyright businessday

Benue State, long regarded as Nigeria’s “food basket,” is now reeling under what researchers describe as a relentless cycle of bloodshed and displacement that has claimed thousands of lives and devastated its farmlands.

A new SBM Intelligence report, A Cycle of Carnage: Displacement, Insecurity, and the Failure of Governance in Benue State (September 2025), traces the evolution of farmer-herder violence in the state from sporadic clashes to a systematic, year-round crisis.

Between January 2019 and June 2025 alone, 287 violent incidents involving armed herders left at least 2,185 people dead, according to the research firm.

The report found that the violence, which once followed seasonal pressures, has “shattered its seasonal cycle to become a relentless and escalating humanitarian disaster”.

One of the most chilling episodes came on June 13, 2025, when gunmen stormed Yelwata in Guma Local Government Area, killing over 200 people and displacing at least 3,000.

“The presence of a military unit in Yelwata should have been sufficient to repel the attack. The failure to respond, despite being in the town, raises serious questions about the military’s effectiveness,” the report observed.

Half a million displaced

Amnesty International estimated that 500,182 people were internally displaced in Benue as of December 2024. SBM Intelligence confirmed that new waves of displacement have continued through 2025, particularly in Gwer West, Agatu, Ukum, Kwande, Logo, and Guma LGAs. Many families have been uprooted multiple times since the first waves of mass killings in 2013 and 2014.

Researchers visiting the International Market IDP camp in Makurdi observed overcrowding and reliance on aid from local agencies, Catholic charities, and organisations such as Save the Children. Livelihoods have been shattered, with large swathes of yam, cassava, maize, rice, and sorghum farmlands destroyed. The report warns that Benue’s agricultural collapse has “severe implications for local and national food security”.

From cooperation to carnage

The SBM report noted that Tiv farmers and Fulani herders once coexisted peacefully for more than a century, trading cattle and sharing land for seasonal grazing. That fragile balance, however, was eroded by colonial land laws, the 1978 Land Use Act, and economic reforms of the 1980s, which intensified land competition. By the late 2000s, disputes over farmland and grazing routes had turned deadly.

The violence escalated sharply between 2013 and 2018, with Agatu suffering massacres that killed over 500 people in 2014 and 700 in 2015. Since then, the crisis has widened to other LGAs, entrenching itself as a “new normal.” In 2024, Guma alone recorded 57 attacks and 158 deaths.

Governance failures and security lapses

The report is scathing about government responses. Federal and state authorities have pursued conflicting policies: Benue outlawed open grazing in 2017, while the Buhari administration promoted the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) scheme. Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), launched in 2018 to stem violence in Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau, has drastically reduced its operations since 2019.

Since then, attacks have surged. SBM data shows fatalities rising as OPWS activities declined. “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,” the report said.

Survivors accuse soldiers of complicity or deliberate inaction. One villager, Samuel Dende, told researchers that when communities report violations, “the military often claims it is not their responsibility.” He alleged that herders are sometimes aided by soldiers.

The federal government has largely framed the killings as farmer-herder disputes. Following the Yelwata massacre, President Bola Tinubu called for unity, describing the attacks as communal clashes. But the Tor Tiv, 6James Ayatse II, rejected this characterisation, warning: “What is happening in Benue is a genocide”.

Beyond Benue, the report documents the killings in Nigeria’s wider security collapse, from Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East to banditry in the North-West and separatist agitations in the South-East. However, Benue epitomises “a complex land-grab crisis facilitated by possibly state-backed ethnic cleansing,” the researchers warn.

SBM Intelligence concluded that the violence is no longer a local dispute but a national security emergency.

“This is not a simple farmer-herder dispute but a profound national security challenge demanding a decisive shift in approach,” the report stressed.

It calls for equitable land governance, inter-ethnic dialogue, stronger accountability, and sustained humanitarian support, warning that without decisive action, “the cycle of violence and displacement is likely to continue unabated”.