Nigeria — Transhumance Tracking Tool Report — Early Warning Dashboard 17 (September 2023)

In northern Nigeria and other Sahel regions, the escalation of hostility and violent conflicts between transhumant herders and farmers are linked to several key factors. One of the main contributors is the competition over natural resources, which is exacerbated by the low rainfall, insecurity, insurgency, growing population and the attendant land-intensive demands for both farming and transhumance activities. Additionally, year-round farming and the conventional methods of land allocation to farming and herding activities add to the tensions, as farmers may encroach on designated grazing areas and routes, and herders in turn resort to destructive practices such as trespassing on farmlands, causing crop destruction and polluting water sources to feed their cattle. These factors sometimes result in deadly conflicts.

The Transhumance Tracking Tool (TTT) within the framework of IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) utilizes information provided by community Key Informants through a designated focal person to record alerts related to transhumance activities. This report showcases the early warning alerts collected by TTT in 9 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across Adamawa and Taraba states for September 2023.
The triangulated 303 alerts linked to transhumance related events for September 2023 comprises of 292 (96%) events and 11 (4%) movement alerts. The largest number of alerts were reported in Demsa LGA in Adamawa state (22%), followed by Zing LGAs (17%) and Lau (16%) in Taraba state. The disaggregated event alerts in the two states reveal that the highest reported events occurred in Monkin ward of Zing LGA in Taraba state, accounting for 6.5 per cent of the total. This was followed by Gwamba and Nassarawo Demsa wards in Demsa LGA of Adamawa, at 4.8 per cent each, and Zing ward in Zing LGA of Taraba state, which reported 4.1 per cent of the total event alerts.
The reported alerts suggested the instance of 1 per cent population displacement, while 15 per cent of the instances resulted in casualties or injuries.