There is scarcely any community in Nigeria which has not been involved in boundary and communal disputes. Boundaries are made for human beings and should therefore be made for human convenience and not conflicts. However, boundary issues in our society today are treated as matters of life and death. Family/boundary and communal conflicts in Nigeria are as result of competition over access to land and other natural resources in different parts of the country. Most of these conflicts are unnecessary in that they can be resolved if the groups in conflict wish to find a solution. There are some traditional institutions to settle disputes and resolve conflict, but they are facing unprecedented challenges and quite new types of issue. The Ezza-Ezillo communal conflict presents these challenges and issues. Prolonged land dispute between the communities led to the loss of 150 lives in 2010 forcing the state government to sack everybody from the disputed land bringing relative peace to the area. Children between the ages of three to five and women were among the victims of the attack and the head of crimes of a police station was also killed. This study discusses the human cost of communal conflict in Ebonyi State between 2008-2010. to achieve this objective, the first and second sections of the paper addresses conceptual and theoretical issues. The next segment explores the major causes of communal conflicts by drawing inferences from order case studies. The final part offers recommendations and concludes the paper.

There is scarcely any community in Nigeria which has not been involved in boundary and communal disputes. Boundaries are made for human beings and should therefore be made for human convenience and not conflicts. However, boundary issues in our society today are treated as matters of life and dea...