Violent activities in Nigeria have resulted in the death of 7,253 Nigerians between June 2018 and May 2019.
These figures, released by Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa program, consist of those killed by insurgent groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State in the northern part of the country, herdsmen and extra-judicial activities by the military.
During the timeframe, Borno and Zamfara recorded the highest number of killings contributing to 49 per cent of the total deaths within the last one year. Borno recorded 2,384 killings while 1,157 people were killed by different violent activities in Zamfara.
Other states that made up the top 10 states of death from violent activities are Kaduna, 540; Benue, 330; Adamawa, 303; Yobe, 264; Taraba, 176; Plateau, 166; Rivers, 160 and Katsina with 127 deaths.
The least affected states are Kebbi, 3; Kwara and Jigawa, 4; Osun, 8; Kano and Bauchi, 10; Gombe, Oyo and Enugu, 11 and Abia, 12;
The data also showed that extrajudicial activities by state actors led to the most killings in the country with 1,545 deaths, while 1,042 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram sects.
Also, communal crisis and clash between herdsmen and farmers resulted in killings of 1,178 Nigerians while 1,230 deaths resulted from other factors.
The Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) said it tracks violence that is both causal and symptomatic of Nigeria’s political instability and citizen alienation.
“Relying on press reports of violence presents methodological limitations. There is a dearth of accurate reporting across certain regions, death tolls are imprecise, and accounts of incidents vary. There is the potential for political manipulation of media. Given these limitations, the NST makes every effort to collect information from multiple sources,” the NST noted.
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