Nigeria Security Tracker

The Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) was a project of the Council on Foreign Relations' Africa program. It documented and mapped violence in Nigeria motivated by political, economic, or social grievances. The data was updated through July 1, 2023.

Methodology

The Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) tracked violence both causal and symptomatic of Nigeria’s political instability and citizen alienation. The data was based on weekly surveys of Nigerian and international media through July 1, 2023.

The data started with May 29, 2011, the date of Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration as president. It was an event that highlighted the increasing bifurcation of the country on regional and religious lines.

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 made every effort to collect information from multiple sources. Nevertheless, NST statistics should be viewed as indicative rather than definitive. Download the whole dataset as an excel spreadsheet here.

The Nigeria Security Tracker was edited by Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Studies Michelle Gavin.