Benue students trained on links between climate stress and conflict

About 240 young people in Benue State were trained on climate action and peacebuilding at an outreach event held for students of Father Moses Adasu University in Makurdi.

The programme was run by International Alert Nigeria with the Jireh Doo Foundation under the Peacebuilding and Climate Action for Youth initiative. The organisation's senior project officer, Kenkeng Ati, said the sessions were designed to help students, researchers and youth leaders understand how climate change interacts with peace and security, and to prepare them to raise awareness among other young people. He said livelihoods in the state erode when climate effects go unaddressed.

The initiative's coordinator, Ibrahim Joseph Asongu, said the aim was to move participants from awareness to action and to connect academic work with practice. Stephen Ahile, head of programmes at the Benue State Council on Climate Change, told participants that climate change was already part of daily reality in the state and that mitigation and adaptation work offered skills and income for young people. Benue's farming communities face flooding along the river as well as shifting rainfall and competition over grazing land.