# The River Benue

> The River Benue is the Niger's principal tributary, rising in Cameroon's Adamawa Plateau and running about 1,400 km west into Nigeria before joining the Niger at Lokoja. It crosses Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, and Kogi states, and Cameroon's Lagdo Dam on its upper course is a recurring source of destructive downstream flooding.

**Category:** Geography & Environment · **Updated:** 2026-07-26 19:36:35 · **Canonical:** https://nigeriastuff.org/a/river-benue

## Key facts
- **Length:** c. 1,400 km / 870 mi
- **Source:** Adamawa Plateau, near Ngaoundéré, northern Cameroon
- **Nigerian states on its course:** Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi
- **Major Nigerian towns:** Yola/Jimeta, Ibi, Makurdi
- **Confluence with the Niger:** Lokoja, Kogi State
- **Upstream dam:** Lagdo Dam, Cameroon (on the Benue's Garoua headwaters)
- **Planned Nigerian counterpart dam:** Dasin Hausa Dam, Adamawa State — begun 1980s, still unfinished
- **First charted by a European:** Heinrich Barth, 1851

## Sources
- Benue River — WorldAtlas (https://www.worldatlas.com/rivers/benue-river.html)
- Lower Niger-Benue (ecoregion 505) — Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW) (https://www.feow.org/ecoregions/details/505)
- Exploration of North Africa — EBSCO Research Starters (https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/exploration-north-africa)
- Why Cameroon's Lagdo Dam releases cause devastating floods in Nigeria — Vanguard News (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/09/why-cameroons-lagdo-dam-releases-cause-devastating-floods-in-nigeria/)
- NiHSA warns of Rivers Niger, Benue overflow — Punch Newspapers (https://punchng.com/nihsa-warns-of-rivers-niger-benue-overflow/)

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