The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) has issued a stark warning: climate change is now a direct catalyst for armed conflict and mass displacement in Nigeria and across the Sahel. The institute is urging immediate, unified action.
At a high-level seminar in Abuja on Wednesday—part of IPCR’s 25th-anniversary events—the Director-General, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, described the environmental crisis as a destabilising force exacerbating insecurity and humanitarian emergencies in fragile regions. The seminar, titled “Climate Change, Armed Conflicts, and Internal Displacements in the Sahel Region,” hosted regional experts, government representatives, and civil society leaders, with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung–Nigeria.
Ochogwu emphasized that ecological degradation is intensifying competition over scarce resources, particularly affecting farming and pastoral communities:
“Shrinking water sources, reduced agricultural yields, and vanishing grazing lands are pushing communities into conflict, especially where governance is weak and adaptive capacity is limited… Climate change is no longer a distant threat; it is a present and destabilising force.”
He detailed how rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, and advancing desertification are heightening tensions over land, water, and grazing routes—triggering intercommunal violence and cross-border instability in the Sahel.
In Nigeria, these environmental pressures are compounding violent extremism, forcing millions—especially in the Northeast, North-Central, and Northwest—to become internally displaced. Ochogwu stressed that these displacements result not only in the loss of livelihoods but also increased poverty, marginalisation, and secondary displacement, presenting both humanitarian and security crises.
He advocated for a proactive, preventative strategy that embeds climate adaptation into peacebuilding efforts. Such an approach should be conflict-sensitive, inclusive, and forward-thinking:
“Our response must be holistic, involving peacebuilding, climate resilience, social inclusion, and regional cooperation… Early warning systems, climate-smart agriculture, alternative livelihoods, and access to justice must form the pillars of a sustainable peace agenda.”
Ambassador Usman Sarki, former Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, delivered the keynote address, calling for immediate, comprehensive action to tackle the intertwined crises of climate change, conflict, and displacement in the Sahel. He noted that recent political shifts—such as the AES nations forming new security and political alliances—underscore the urgency of collaborative and inclusive solutions.
He warned that the region now faces deepening instability marked by lawlessness, state fragility, criminality, and armed conflict. Sarki challenged participants to move beyond academic debate to practical action rooted in inclusive governance, effective security measures, community empowerment, food security, and climate resilience.
The seminar’s recommendations were aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s eight-point agenda and Nigeria’s 4D foreign policy framework—Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora—highlighting the need for integrated responses to environmental stress, security threats, and displacement.
