Why Earthwork Fortifications Are Returning to Nigeria’s North-East and the Sahel

Centuries ago, Benin City’s massive walls rivalled the Great Wall of China. Most of those earthworks vanished after colonial conquests. Since the mid-2010s, new defensive trenches and sand berms have appeared around towns in north-east Nigeria and across the Sahel. Research by University of Florida geographers shows every urban centre over 10,000 people here now has a trench. Nigeria’s army began digging these low-tech fortifications after the 2014 Chibok kidnapping. Neighboring countries, from Burkina Faso to Togo, have followed suit to slow jihadist raids. Experts warn this could cede rural areas to insurgents, creating “secure islands” amid an insecure landscape. This resurgence of medieval-style defences underscores widening state weakness and echoes West Africa’s pre-colonial past.

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