Yelwa, town, seat of the traditional Yauri emirate, Kebbi state, northwestern Nigeria. It lies on the road between Kontagora and Birnin Kebbi. An early Niger River settlement of the Reshe (Gungawa) people, it was ruled by the kings of Yauri from their capital at Bin Yauri, 8.5 miles (14 km) southeast. In 1888, after a period of civil war in which Bin Yauri had been abandoned, Yelwa was chosen as the new Yauri capital. The Royal Niger Company established a trading post there in 1896. The British occupied the town in 1901.
Although a portion of Yelwa was permanently flooded by Kainji Lake (impounded on the Niger River) in 1968, the town remains the traditional seat of the emirate and its most important market centre. Onions, rice, and cotton, which are cultivated in the nearby extensive floodplains of the Niger, are the chief crops grown for export; but Yelwa also has considerable trade in sorghum, millet, cowpeas, peanuts (groundnuts), sugarcane, shea nuts, tobacco, kola nuts, peppers, beans, fish, cattle, and guinea fowl. A majority of the town’s inhabitants are Muslims. Pop. (2006) local government area, 88,777.