We Will Stay-put or Die Remaining: Why Some Communities Choose Active Immobility in Conflict Zones in Nigeria

Dr Ezenwa E. Olumba

doi:10.1080/17450101.2026.2695976

We Will Stay-put or Die Remaining: Why Some Communities Choose Active Immobility in Conflict Zones in Nigeria

Dr Ezenwa E. Olumba

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The staying behaviour of communities in violent conflict zones remains underexplored in migration. This paper investigates why communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt choose to stay put on their ancestral land, despite having the means to flee, recurring armed attacks, displacement risks, and the absence of state protection. Drawing on focus group discussions conducted in 2022 across Benue and Nasarawa States, and underpinned by the resilience–accessibility framework, the study applies a reflexive thematic analysis to examine how the material and symbolic dimensions of life influence active immobility in conflict-affected areas. The findings suggest that active immobility in the study locations is shaped by two interrelated dimensions of life: the material, attachment to land and its physical, social, and economic resources, and the symbolic, their desire to preserve their lifescape while on their ancestral land. The paper extends debates on (im)mobility beyond Eurocentric and climate-focused perspectives by foregrounding collective experiences of staying put in conflict-affected areas in the Global South.

Original language	English
Number of pages	18
Journal	Mobilities
Early online date	5 Jul 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2026.2695976
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 5 Jul 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Funding

I thank Royal Holloway, University of London, for funding my doctoral research, and the Leverhulme Trust for supporting my postdoc research.

Funders
Leverhulme Trust

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

(im)mobility
Active immobility
Nigeria
ancestral land
conflict zone
lifescape
resilience–accessibility framework

Access to Document

10.1080/17450101.2026.2695976Licence: CC BY 4.0

We Will Stay-put or Die Remaining- Why Some Communities Choose Active Immobility in Conflict Zones in Nigeria
Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Final published version, 1.19 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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We Will Stay-put or Die Remaining: Why Some Communities Choose Active Immobility in Conflict Zones in Nigeria

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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