Video - Persistent clashes in Central Nigeria over land and resources

Residents of Yelewata in Benue State, Central Nigeria, are struggling to recover from a devastating overnight attack this weekend. Such attacks are frequent in the region, driven by ongoing conflicts between farmers and nomadic herders over competition for land and resources.

CGTN

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Video - At least 45 killed by gunmen in Nigeria’s Benue state

Video - At least 50 dead as violence erupts in Nigeria’s Taraba state

Video - At least 50 dead as violence erupts in Nigeria’s Taraba state

More than 50 people are dead after a weekend of violence between nomadic herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the eastern Nigerian state of Taraba. Amnesty International has condemned Nigerian leadership, saying weak governance in rural areas is fueling a surge in deadly confrontations. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris has more on the aftermath, from the village of Mungalelau, Nigeria.

Al Jazeera

Related story: Civilians are stepping in to keep the peace in the deadly feud between herders and farmers

Cows obstruct Nigeria’s capital as climate change and development leave herders with nowhere to go

At an intersection seven miles from the presidential villa, frustrated drivers honk as a herd of cattle feeds on the grass beautifying the median strip and slowly marches across the road, their hooves clattering against the asphalt. For the teenage herder guiding them, Ismail Abubakar, it is just another day, and for most drivers stuck in the traffic, it’s a familiar scene unfolding in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

Abubakar and his cattle’s presence in the city center is not out of choice but of necessity. His family are originally from Katsina State in northern Nigeria, where a changing climate turned grazing lands into barren desert. He moved to Idu — a rural, bushy and less developed part of Abuja — many years ago. But it now hosts housing estates, a vast railway complex and various industries.

“Our settlement at Idu was destroyed and the bush we used for grazing our cattle cut down to pave the way for new houses,” Abubakar said in a smattering of Pidgin English. It forced his family to settle on a hill in the city’s periphery and roam the main streets for pasture.

Fulani herders like Abubakar are traditionally nomadic and dominate West Africa’s cattle industry. They normally rely on wild countryside to graze their cattle with free pasture, but the pressures of modernization, the need for land for housing and crop farming and human-caused climate change are challenging their way of life. To keep cattle off of Abuja’s major roads and gardens, some suggest that herders need to start acquiring private land and operating like other businesses. But to do that, they’d need money and government incentives.

“It’s disheartening,” said Baba Ngelzarma, the president of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a Fulani pastoralists’ advocacy group. “Nigeria is presented as an unorganized people. The herders take the cattle wherever they can find green grasses and water at least for the cows to survive, not minding whether it is the city or somebody’s land.”

He added that part of the problem is the government’s failure to harness the potential of the livestock industry by offering incentives such as infrastructure like water sources and vet services at designated grazing reserves and providing subsidies.

For its part, the government has said it will address the issue, previously promising fenced-off reserves for cattle herders. President Bola Tinubu announced in July a new livestock development ministry, which Ngelzarma said would help revive the abandoned grazing reserves. No minister has been appointed.
 

Fewer places to go

Nigeria is home to over 20 million cows, mostly owned by Fulani herders. It has the fourth largest cattle population in Africa, and its dairy market is valued at $1.5 billion. But despite its size, almost 90% of local demand is met through imports, according to the US International Trade Administration. It’s a sign of the industry’s inefficiency, Ngelzarma said, as cows stressed from constant moving and poor diets can’t produce milk.

For Abuja, the city’s environment bears the consequence, and so do businesses when traffic grinds to a halt because cows are crossing busy roads. And in other parts of Nigeria, herders are often involved in violence with farmers over access to land, especially in central and southern Nigeria where the two industries overlap with religious and ethnic divisions.

There are four designated grazing reserves in rural areas surrounding Abuja, but they lack the needed infrastructure and have been encroached on by other farmers and illegal settlers, according to both Ngelzarma and Festus Adebayo, who’s executive secretary of the Housing Development Advocacy Network.

With those reserves not functioning, herders set up settlements anywhere and stay for as long as they can before legitimate owners claim it or the government builds on it.

Mohammed Abbas, 67, has repeatedly had to move locations over the years. Most of his current settlement in the city’s Life Camp neighborhood has been taken over by a newly constructed petrol station, and he is aware that the remaining land will soon be claimed by another owner.

As a smallholder pastoralist, he said he could not afford to buy land in Abuja for a permanent settlement and ranching. To afford one, “I have to sell all my cows and that means nothing will be left to put on the land,” he said in Hausa, sitting outside his hut.

Other pastoralists would rather resist.

“We are not going anywhere again,” said Hassan Mohammed, whose family now occupies a strip on the edge of a new estate near the Idu train station. Once a vast bush, the area has been swallowed by infrastructure and housing projects. Mohammed now also drives a lorry on the side because of the shrinking resources needed to keep cattle.

Despite repeated orders from the owners to vacate, Mohammed said that his family would stay put, using the dwindling strip as their home base while taking their cattle elsewhere each day for pasture. The landowners have repeatedly urged the government to resettle Mohammed’s family, but the government has yet to take action.

“Many don’t have anywhere to call home, so they just find somewhere to sleep at night with the cattle,” said Mohammed, in Hausa. “But for us, we are not leaving except there is a new place within Abuja.”
 

Making room for development and cows

Folawiyo Daniel, an Abuja-based real estate developer who has endured difficulties with pastoralists that affect his project development, said the issue is a failure of urban planning.

“Real estate development is not the problem,” he said, and the government should revive grazing reserves in the city for pastoralists.

Adebayo, from the Housing Development Advocacy Network, agreed, saying “it is time” for Abuja’s minister Nyesom Wike to take action and prove that “the problem of open grazing in the city of Abuja is solvable.”

Herders have to be moved to the place designated for their work or restricted to defined private property, he said.

The official responsible for animal husbandry in the agriculture ministry said they could not comment on a major policy issue without authorization, while the spokesperson for the ministry in charge of Abuja declined a request for an interview.

But in March, after the Belgian ambassador to Nigeria raised concerns to Wike about cattle roaming Abuja’s streets, he replied that efforts were in progress to stop the indiscriminate grazing without disclosing specific details.

Herders say they are not opposed to a restricted form of herding or practicing like a normal business that buys their own feedstock instead of using free pasture and water wherever they find them.

The problem, according to cattle association chief Ngelzarma, is that the government has neglected the sector and does not provide incentives as it does other businesses, giving the examples of irrigation systems for crop farmers and airports for private airline operators paid for by the government.

“The government should revive the gazetted grazing reserves fitted with the infrastructure for water and fodder production, training and veterinary services and generate jobs and revenues,” Ngelzarma said.

“Then, you can say stop roaming about for free pasture,” he said.

By Taiwo Adebayo, AP

At least 10 farmers killed by gunmen in northern Nigeria

Gunmen in Nigeria killed at least 10 farmers on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the northern Niger state, residents said.

Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, have frequently raided communities in northwest Nigeria, kidnapping residents, farmers, students and motorists for ransom.

Residents told Reuters on Thursday that the gunmen had attacked some farmers in Allawa community of Shiroro local government area in Niger late the previous day.

"The farmers were trapped and 10 killed yesterday evening in their respective farms," said Hassan Abubakar.

Another resident, Indamishe Auwal, who helped remove the corpses, lamented the incident and the general insecurity in the area.

"Shiroro is bleeding. Our people are suffering and bandits have taken over our farmlands," Auwal said.

Niger state police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Related story: Nigeria deploys armed rangers to protect farmers

 

Nigeria deploys armed rangers to protect farmers

As attacks on farmers intensified across Nigeria, Fatima Bello from Sokoto abandoned dry season farming.

The smallholder farmer of rice, millet and beans shared her experience of farming under constant threat.

'During the dry season last year, I did not even plant anything because of this issue of insecurity,' she said. 'What I would have produced that I would have used for my family and also take to the market, other people are going to benefit from what I will sell. They will buy, but now it means if I don't produce anything, then it means I will not have been able to have something to use.'

Violent attacks, land levies and kidnappings have forced many farmers to abandon their lands, driving up food inflation. In response, the government declared a state of emergency on food security in 2023 and recently deployed 10,000 agro rangers across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Their mission is to safeguard farmland and mediate conflicts, especially in areas hit by farmer-herder clashes.

Bello sees this as a positive step.

'I think it is welcomed development,' she said. 'It has just been started, so we need to see, maybe take some time. Then we will be able to know the impact.'

Affirming the rangers' readiness to restore safety across the food belt, Babawale Afolabi, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, says all hands are on deck.

'Our operatives have been on top of the game since the commissioning of the agro rangers squad nationwide. ... The agro ranger is a well-seasoned, trained and formidable special force, and we thank the federal government for providing necessary logistics so far,' he said.

'We have increased and upskilled our intelligent base so we can tackle head-on rising challenges,' he said. 'We are all for engaging the communities to create awareness on how to give credible information.'

Plateau, Zamfara, Niger and other states considered hot zones for farmer insecurity are supporting the squad with logistics.

While praising the government's intervention, farmer and agricultural economist Retson Tedheke stresses the need for more personnel.

'It's a very good thing,' he said, 'but 10,000 is a very small number. If you ask me, there are over 150,000 polling units. Multiply that by five, that should be the agro rangers we have. And not just in the agro ranger level - if you are sending five agro rangers in a particular location, send five extension workers.'

Tedheke warns that addressing the root causes of insecurity in farming communities requires sustained effort.

'Nigerian farmers should be getting loans at between 5% and 7%,' he said, 'because we are producing food. ... Food security is a major component of political development, governmental development and leadership development."

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that 22 million Nigerians could face food insecurity in 2024, with projections rising to 82 million by 2030.

VOA 

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Video - Farmers in Nigeria plead with government over insecurity

Video - Farmers in Nigeria plead with government over insecurity

In Nigeria, farmers are calling on the government to make their communities safer so they can help relieve a food-security crisis in the country. The plea comes as village leaders complain they are not able to spend time tending to their crops because they fear being attacked.

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Video - More security personnel deployed to Plateau state in Nigeria after December attacks 

Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

 

Video - At least 30 people killed in the latest violence in Nigeria

Authorities say assailants stormed a village in the Mangu Local Government area and two additional nearby communities on Tuesday. In addition to the deaths, several buildings, including a market and worship centers were destroyed.

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Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

 

 

Video - More security personnel deployed to Plateau state in Nigeria after December attacks

The additional deployment follows attacks by gunmen who invaded communities in Plateau state on Christmas Eve, killing over 150 people. Analysts believe the government needs to employ more than just a heavy hand to bring peace to the area.

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Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

 

 

Video - President of Nigeria says Plateau state attack planners will be apprehended

Attacks in Nigeria's central Plateau state left nearly 160 people dead after gunmen rounded several villages over the weekend. Authorities say the raids were senseless and unprovoked. 

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Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

Video - Nigeria mourns the brutal murders of at least 160 people

Communities in Plateau state, Nigeria are in mourning after at least 160 people were killed in a series of attacks by armed groups over the Christmas weekend. The gunmen targeted about 20 villages across the Bokkos and Barkin Ladi areas.

CGTN

Related story: Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

 

Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

Nigerian mother-of-three Grace Godwin was preparing food on Christmas Eve when her husband burst into the kitchen and ordered her and the children to run and take cover in the bush after gunmen were spotted in a nearby village.

Soon they heard gunfire, starting an hours-long attack by suspected nomadic herders who rampaged through 15 villages in central Plateau state on Sunday, killing at least 140 people with guns and machetes, officials, police and residents said.

It was the bloodiest violence since 2018 when more than 200 people were killed in Nigeria's central region where clashes between herders and farmers are common.

"We returned at 6 the next morning and found that houses had been burnt and people killed. There are still people missing," Godwin said by phone.

"There is no one in Mayanga (village), women and children have all fled."

It was not immediately clear what triggered Sunday's attacks but violence in the region, known as the "Middle Belt", is often characterised as ethno-religious - chiefly Muslim Fulani herdsmen clashing with mainly Christian farmers.

But experts and politicians say climate change and expanding agriculture are creating competition for land, pushing farmers and herders into conflict.

Nomadic cattle herders are from northern Nigeria, which is getting drier and becoming more prone to drought and floods. That is forcing them to trek further south, where farmers are increasing production as the population rapidly expands.

That means less land for nomads and their cattle, supporting the view among local people that the conflict is based on the availability of resources rather than ethnic or religious differences.

"These attacks have been recurring. They want to drive us out of our ancestral land but we will continue to resist these assaults," said Magit Macham, who had returned from the state capital Jos to celebrate Christmas with his family.

Macham was chatting to his brother outside his house when the sputtering sound of a petrol generator was interrupted by gunshots. His brother was hit by a bullet in the leg but Macham dragged him to into the bush where they hid for the night.

"We were taken unawares and those that could run ran into the bush. A good number of those that couldn't were caught and killed with machetes," he said.

Plateau governor called the violence "unprovoked" and police said several houses, cars and motorcycles were burnt.

President Bola Tinubu, who has yet to spell out how he intends to tackle widespread security, described the attacks as "primitive and cruel" and directed police to track down those responsible.

By Hamza Ibrahim and Camillus Eboh, Reuters

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At least 23 killed in Nigeria after herdsmen attack villagers

Video - Insecurity in Nigeria's northern regions hampering food production

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, as many as 26 million Nigerians could face severe hunger by next year. The UN agency says several issues, but mainly insecurity, contribute to the problem. Experts have called on the government to address these concerns to safeguard food production.

CGTN

16 dead in herders and farmers clash in Nigeria

Sixteen people have been killed in two attacks in north-central Nigeria in a region struggling with inter-communal violence, the army said.

Clashes between nomadic herders and farming communities often flare in Plateau State, which sits on the dividing line between the mostly Muslim north and Nigeria’s predominantly Christian south.

In the latest violence on Tuesday, half a dozen members of a local farmers’ self-defense group were killed by gunmen in Riyom district while another 10 people were killed in an attack in Mangu area, an army spokesman said.

“Six lives were lost in Riyom,” said army Major Ishaku Takwa told AFP on Wednesday.

“Another attack took place in some communities in Mangu and 10 persons died.”

Plateau state assembly member representing Mangu South, Bala Fwangje, said 14 people had been killed in that area.

“We heard that about 14 people were killed, houses destroyed, property burnt. I am yet to get the full details,” he said.

Since May, nearly 200 people have been killed in clashes between the Berom farming communities, who are mainly Christian, and the cattle breeding communities of Fulani Muslims in the Riyom, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu areas of Plateau.

It was unclear what exactly triggered the recent attacks in Plateau, but tit-for-tat killings between herders and farmers often spiral into village raids by heavily armed gangs who kidnap, loot and kill villagers.

The Plateau crisis is one of the many security challenges facing President Bola Tinubu who took the helm of Africa’s most populous nation at the end of May. 

AFP

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Bomb blast kills at least 50 in Nigeria

Dozens of cattle herders and bystanders were killed and several injured by a suspected bomb blast in Nigeria's north central region, a state government official and spokesperson of the national cattle breeders said on Wednesday.

The incident happened on Tuesday night between Nasarawa and Benue states in north central Nigeria.

The spokesperson of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Tasi'u Suleman, said a group of Fulani herders were moving their cattle to Nasarawa from Benue, where authorities had confiscated the animals for breaching anti-grazing laws, when an explosion rocked the area.

"At least about 54 people died instantly. Those who were injured were countless," Suleman said.

Nasarawa governor Abdullahi Sule did not say how many people were killed, but told reporters that a bomb blast was responsible for the deaths.

He did not say who was believed to be behind the explosion, but said he had been meeting with security agencies "to ensure that we continue to douse the tension" that could be caused by the incident.

North central Nigeria, also known as the Middle Belt, is prone to violence due to clashes between Fulani pastoralists and farmers, who are mainly Christian, which is often painted as ethno-religious conflict.

But experts say population growth and climate change has led to an expansion of the area dedicated to farming, leaving less land available for open grazing by nomads' herds of cattle.

The governor's spokesperson Abubakar Ladan told Reuters that mass burial for those killed were held earlier on Wednesday.

By Ardo Hazzad and Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

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Armed groups have terrorised people in northern Nigeria for years. The 'bandits' burn down villages, steal cattle and kidnap people for ransom. The government appears to be struggling to stop a rise in attacks. Gunmen killed least 200 people in Zamfara state on Tuesday, in an apparent retaliation against military air strikes on the armed groups' hideouts. So what can be done to stop the assaults? Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom Guests: Mike Ejiofor - Former Director of Nigeria's State Security Service Bulama Bukarti - Analyst, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change Aliyu Musa - Independent researcher on conflict and Nigerian politics

Dozens killed in ‘barbaric, senseless’ violence in Nigeria

Nigeria’s presidency says dozens of people have been killed in violence between farmers and herders in the country’s central Nasarawa state.

In a statement late on Tuesday, the office of President Muhammadu Buhari said at least 45 farmers were killed in the violence that erupted on Friday. Dozens more were wounded, it said.

Buhari “expressed grief over the heart-wrenching” killings and said his government would “leave no stone unturned in fishing out the perpetrators of this senseless and barbaric incident, and bring them to justice”.

Local police said the violence broke out when armed Fulani herders attacked villagers from the Tiv ethnic group over the killing of a kinsman that they blamed on Tiv farmers. The unrest continued until Sunday. The police initially gave a death toll of eight.

Nasarawa state police spokesman Ramhan Nansel earlier said military and police teams had deployed in the area to restore calm and arrest the perpetrators.

“We received a complaint on the killing of a Fulani herdsman but while the investigation was ongoing, a reprisal attack was carried out in Hangara village and neighbouring Kwayero village,” Ramhan Nansel,

“Eight people were killed in the attacks and their bodies were recovered by the police and taken to hospital.”

But Peter Ahemba of the Tiv Development Association said the death toll was higher.

“We recovered more than 20 corpses of our people killed in the attacks in 12 villages across Lafia, Obi and Awe districts where around 5,000 were displaced,” he said, adding that many people were still missing.

Deadly clashes between nomadic cattle herders and local farmers over grazing and water rights are common in central Nigeria.

The internecine conflict has taken on an ethnic and religious dimension in recent years. The Fulani herders are Muslim, and the farmers are primarily Christian.

The friction, which has roots dating back more than a century, was caused by droughts, population growth, the expansion of sedentary farming into communal areas as well as poor governance.

Violence by criminal gangs of cattle thieves among the herders, who raid villages, killing and burning homes after looting them, has compounded the situation.

The Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has promised to go after killers of Fulani herders and Tiv farmers.

“There was needless loss of lives of our citizens. Such act of violence is most unfortunate, condemnable, and unacceptable and will not be condoned by this administration,” he was quoted as saying by the Sahara Reporters news site.

Al Jazeera

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Attacked by armed bandits, and being kidnapped or forced to pay levies before they can reach their farmlands. Farmers in Northern Nigeria are caught between protecting their lives, and their livelihoods. Deteriorating security in the Northwest is reducing food reserves and adding to the nation's food crisis. It's estimated output has dropped by sixty percent. The violence is compounding challenges caused by climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. The UN has warned people in parts of the Northeast are also at risk of famine.

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Nigeria is also losing control of its troubled northwest region

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Nigeria pays $11 million as ransom to kidnappers in four years

Civilians are stepping in to keep the peace in the deadly feud between herders and farmers

Nigeria is also losing control of its troubled northwest region

This month BBC’s Hausa language service which covers northern Nigeria reported a remarkable story of 12 Nigerian police officers being kidnapped along the Katsina-Zamfara expressway in the country’s northwest region. It was the latest in a growing list of attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria’s northwest that have often been underreported in Nigeria’s national media and almost hardly covered by the international media.

For the past decade and more, Nigeria has been battling Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in an insurgency that has cost about 30,000 lives and displaced 2.3 million people in and around the northeast region of the country. The group, which has carried out attacks in the country’s capital Abuja as well as in neighboring countries Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, remains very active in the northeast even after splintering into the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the Jamaa’atul Ahlis Sunnah (JAS), with both carrying out attacks on civilians, aid workers, and the military.

However, for the past five years, the northwestern part of Nigeria has also become gradually engulfed by violence, with much less media coverage because these attacks have been carried out groups that have been described locally as “bandits”. These are not islamist terrorist groups with international affiliations which would more easily garner global media attentition.

Bandit is used here as a catch-all term to describe numerous groups that have carried out vicious attacks on local communities, killing scores of people, and have also been kidnapping as many as they can for ransoms. Zamfara, Katsina, and Kaduna states are the epicenters of the growing crisis.

The genesis of the lawlessness is not as clear-cut as the Boko Haram insurgency as it is a combination of various factors.

The northwest region makes up just over a quarter of Nigeria’s landmass and is composed of seven states, including some of Nigeria’s poorest. Zamfara and Sokoto have high poverty rates like in the northeast. But unlike the northeast, the northwest region is more homogenous in terms of ethnicity and religion: with the exception of the southern part of Kaduna State and parts of Kebbi State, it is mostly peopled by the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups, and mostly Muslim.

Most of the actors are Fulani, the ethnic group that spreads across West Africa and is known for being nomadic pastoralists, while the communities being attacked are mostly Hausa farming communities. The current violent dynamic started soon after vigilante groups formed from the Hausa communities for security purposes carried out extrajudicial action against Fulani pastoralists as tensions mounted from increasing competition for land and water resources between the pastoralists and the farmers as the effects of climate change exacerbate.

This has all coincided with an increase in cattle rustling in the regionby armed gangs, again mostly Fulani, using increasingly sophisticated weapons and staging attacks from nearby forests. It is these gangs that have now been attacking communities and killing indiscriminately in a bid to exact revenge. There is also a nexus between the banditry and illegal gold mining in Zamfara state, with the miners accused of being collaborators but have also fallen victimsto the armed gangs.

“The population in the state, which is mainly made up of herders and farmers, have been affected heavily as they have been unable to carry out their economic activities,” says Yusuf Anka, a political commentator based in Gusau, Zamfara’s state capital. “There is arbitrary taxation on the communities by the bandits before they can plant and harvest crops. Everyone in Zamfara has suffered a personal loss to this banditry.”

Given there is very little or even no state presence in most parts of the northwest region beyond its state capitals and major towns, it has become very easy for non-state actors to run rampant in the deep rural areas. It is made worse by the fact the nearby national border in the region is very porous and for many years has become a conduit for smuggling illicit drugs, weapons, and even humans. Together with a high rate of unemployment and poverty, these factors have served to ignite and sustain the seemingly unending cycle of violence.

“It has been terrible in Zandam in the Jibia local government area of Katsina state, where we’ve experienced about five attacks in the last year,” says Gidado Suleiman Farfaru, a local civil society activist in Katsina. “All the resources of the community have been wiped out.” He said three people were killed in these attacks; and another nine people have been reported as kidnapped.

An uncertain calm has returned to the farms and surrounding areas after the government sanctioned the deployment of 60 mobile policemen in the village for the last two months, says Farfaru. The BBC story of the police kidnapping highlights the risk for even uniformed security officials.

Disrupted

But the disruption is not limited to rural areas anymore as there have been numerous kidnappings on major highways in the region and even attacks in cities: for example, traveling on the 190-kilometer expressway linking Nigeria’s capital Abuja and Kaduna is fraught with risk due to the high rate of attacks on travelers. This has made the train link the safer choice for traveling and even an air shuttle servicebeing mooted.

“The deteriorating state of security in the region has also provided opportunities for jihadist groups to take advantage,” says Murtala Abdullahi, a climate, conflict, and security reporter with Humangle News. “There have been reports of the Boko Haram factions trying to extend their reach from the Lake Chad region while groups active in neighboring countries such as Mali, Niger Republic, and Burkina Faso are getting increasingly active close to the region.”

The insecurity is also impacting Nigeria’s agricultural production and food security with more farmers abandoning their farms due to fears of being attacked.

“The insecurity in the northwest is causing significant problems for farmers. In many areas, they now pay bandits to have access to their farms in order to harvest—with fees often ranging in the hundreds of thousands of naira,” says Ikemesit Effiong, the head of research at SBM Intelligence, a geopolitical consultancy based in Lagos. “Even with this quasi-taxation, security is not always guaranteed.”


Effiong is worried about a fast deteriorating situation. “Food insecurity is now a national emergency and the federal and state governments in the northwest need to urgently and closely cooperate to re-establish an adequate security presence in farming areas, so normal activities can resume.”

To be clear, in its efforts to restore security to the region, the Nigerian government has launched numerous military operations over the past four years but with an overstretched military that is deployed in multiple concurrent operations across the whole country, the impact of these operations has been very limited.

“Military approach is important but it needs to be done in a way that is not excessive and targets only the right persons,” says Abdullahi. “Other approaches need to be utilized as well, addressing surrounding issues such as justice, rural development, and state presence, and improving livelihood.”


Other approaches such as a peace deal brokered with the bandits by state governors in the region only held together for a few months before it collapsed, leading to at least one state officially pulling out of the deal. This is likely due to the fragmented nature of the actors in the conflict with so many groups involved such that it is hard to have an agreement binding on all of them.

By Mark Amaza

Quartz Africa

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After years of military action in north-west Nigeria, the government is choosing dialogue to end killings and kidnapping mainly by nomadic cattle herders. Government officials say they want to tackle the injustices that fueled the crisis in the first place.

Civilians are stepping in to keep the peace in the deadly feud between herders and farmers

Farmers and herders once lived harmoniously on Nigeria’s bucolic central plateau, but when Amos Lenji, a farmer, caught a young herdsman grazing cattle in his cornfields this October, he feared for his life.

His fear was rooted in a massacre that took place in June. More than 200 people, mostly farmers, were slaughtered by a gang of masked men dressed in black who marauded through the county of Barkin Ladi. Although no one was apprehended, the killers are suspected to be herdsmen.

It was the biggest bloodbath yet in a cycle of retaliatory killings between farmers and herders competing for space across Nigeria’s hinterlands. At least 1,300 were killed in just the first six months of 2018, according to the International Crisis Group. That is more than six times as many as were killed in Nigeria in the same period by Boko Haram, one of Africa’s deadliest terrorist groups.

Nigeria’s population has grown exponentially and is projected to surpass the United States’ by 2050, although Nigeria is 11 times smaller in area than the United States. Amid the boom, land has become increasingly scarce, and disputes over ownership are frequently turning bloody. New generations of farmers are planting on land traditionally used for grazing, and out of desperation, herders are grazing their cattle in fields still full of crops, destroying harvests. Many in the two groups now see each other as existential threats.

The near-constant violence has catapulted the farmer-herder crisis to the top of an already long list of security concerns in Nigeria. The country is roughly half Christian and half Muslim, and because farmers tend to be Christian and herders tend to be Muslim, the crisis has worsened the friction between the two religious communities. So far, Nigeria’s government has shown little capacity to prevent the fighting from spiraling further.

In the absence of an effective government response, locals have cobbled together groups of peacekeepers who have become the plateau’s de facto law enforcement. Barkin Ladi’s vigilantes, as they’re known, are particularly effective because they include farmers and herders. Bitrus Dung Pam, the local group leader, says he commands 30 times as many recruits as there are police in the whole county.

“When people see us, they trust us,” Pam said. “It’s not like the army or the police. We are the community.”

Pam was who Lenji thought of, standing there in the cornfield. He picked up his cellphone and asked for immediate help. The herdsman ran away.

“I had no other option,” Lenji said.

‘Vigilantes are our eyes’

Nigeria’s police and security forces are underequipped, underpaid and often deployed to unfamiliar areas of this diverse country of almost 200 million people.

Vigilante groups have proliferated out of necessity. They have formed a national umbrella organization that says it has nearly 350,000 members. They fill a giant law enforcement vacuum, but they also represent a homegrown approach to peacekeeping.

They build trust by settling not only potentially explosive disputes between farmers and herders, but also smaller ones. The process often resembles a court proceeding. On a recent day, vigilantes spent hours smoothing out a disagreement over money among women trying to raise chickens collectively.

The volunteers are everyday people, mechanics and bricklayers, men and women, and Muslims and Christians, and they represent all the plateau’s ethnic groups, including the two largest, the Berom and Fulani. Most farmers here are Christian and Berom, while most herders are Muslim and Fulani.

That inclusiveness commands the respect of local officials.

“No one will accuse them of being partisan or conniving with one tribe against the other,” said Yakubu Dati, a spokesman for the state government. “That is what we want, that is what this administration is all about, and we are doing everything to encourage other vigilante groups to emulate that so that peace can return permanently.”

But that doesn’t translate into any tangible state assistance. The volunteers pay for their own uniforms, and they carry hunting rifles and rubber pellets from home. In Barkin Ladi, they coordinate their patrols from donated office space in a small house and have just one vehicle.

They maintain a heavy presence along backcountry roads and man dozens of checkpoints in spots where violence has flared in the past. Since many are guarding their own villages, they simply walk to their posts. They are everywhere the police are not.

“If you call the police, they may tell you, ‘We don’t have fuel, give us some, and we will help you,’ ” said Edward G.M. Bot, the traditional leader of Barkin Ladi’s Berom community. “It is not like that with the vigilantes. The level of determination is totally different. They show up immediately. They stay overnight. They know who we are.”

Maj. Gen. Augustine Agundu, who commands Operation Safe Haven, the Nigerian military’s response to unrest on the plateau, said the volunteers were essential to his mission. The military, police and even aid groups have organized training for them, and Operation Safe Haven coordinates some of its patrolling activity with them.

The Nigerian government has struggled to come up with a comprehensive policy to address the crisis. In some states, grazing has been banned entirely, while in others, herders have been asked to move their cattle to ranges set aside for them. On the plateau, the main policy seems to be Operation Safe Haven’s military intervention and tacit support for the community-led effort.

“The vigilantes are our eyes,” Agundu said.

‘Poisoned relationships’

The violence between farmers and herders is Nigeria’s deadliest, but it is just one of three major conflicts exposing the fraying social fabric in this country.

For a decade, Boko Haram has terrorized the northeast, killing tens of thousands, burning entire villages and kidnapping an untold number of children. And in the Niger Delta in the country’s south, guerrilla groups continue to target foreign oil companies and the government, slowing Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy.

All these crises have led local communities to arm themselves against perceived enemies, while in the background, gargantuan challenges such as rapid population growth, climate change and religious rivalries deepen.

On the central plateau, Berom farmers are in the majority. Many believe that they are indigenous and that nomadic Fulani herders are either interlopers or invaders. The same dynamic is playing out across semiarid parts of Africa, but most violently here, where the plateau’s edges seem to provide a closed arena for battle.

“I won’t be sad if all the Fulani leave this place,” said Rose Mashinging, 36, a farmer who lives in a village that was attacked in June. “It is Berom land anyhow.”

The polarization has penetrated Nigeria’s politics. The country is set to hold a presidential election in February, and many in the mostly Christian south accuse President Muhammadu Buhari, an ethnic Fulani, of siding with herders.

His predecessor was voted out partly because he was perceived as weak against Boko Haram. Buhari’s reelection will partly rely on convincing skeptics that he is serious about peace in the Middle Belt, an ethnically diverse band across the country that is home to Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, though his government has done little to intervene in the conflict so far.

On the plateau, Fulani leaders say that members of the state security forces, who are mostly Christian, actively discriminate against the herders, and the leaders also allege that security personnel have engaged in revenge attacks. (Agundu, the commander of Operation Safe Haven, denies those charges.) Local ardos, or Fulani traditional headmen, complained that police don’t take cases they file seriously. And reports of Berom farmers stealing cattle are common, and the subsequent clashes often result in the deaths of herdsmen.

“It is a mess of poisoned relationships — layers of grievance that accumulated for generations are exploding,” said Adam Higazi, an anthropological researcher at the University of Amsterdam who has been based on the plateau for more than a decade. “Most people on the plateau don’t think of anything else now except the animosity.”

‘They can’t save us’

The vigilantes’ biggest hurdle is that they don’t have the strongest tool available to state law enforcement: lethal weapons. Without them, they can be easily overrun by the kind of marauding gang that terrorized Barkin Ladi in June. With such weapons, however, they might become more like soldiers or bandits themselves and be implicated in the killings.

Idris Gidado, the ardo of the villages worst affected in June, said that he would ordinarily commend the civilian peacekeepers for their bravery but that a recent incident had disillusioned him.

A Fulani man from Gidado’s own village had robbed a family of farmers. The volunteers caught him and handed him over to the police. The police released him quickly, and the ardo suspects that money was exchanged. The man robbed another family, and the sequence of events was repeated. In late October, the man raped a woman in his village, the ardo says.

“We want the vigilantes to succeed,” Gidado said. “But there is no system of justice here to allow that.”

The local police commissioner, Austin Agbonlahor, said he did not doubt the ardo’s story, but he said no formal complaint had been lodged.

Most of the tens of thousands of people who have been displaced by the fighting are too fearful to return home. Maren Zachariah’s entire village, Garwaza, was abandoned in June. Garwaza was ransacked by the attackers, and its central church — with its fresco of Jesus and painted map of Africa — was left gutted and burned. It has been colonized by thousands of bees.

“We want to return, but the government doesn’t provide security. They only come as far as the nearest town. And our vigilantes can warn us, but they can’t save us,” Zachariah said. “The big trouble started on a sunny day like today. It can happen again any time.”

Amid the distrust, Barkin Ladi’s multiethnic vigilantes are setting an example for peaceful coexistence.

Mangwei Mashinging, the brother of the farmer who wishes the Fulani would leave the plateau, said he thinks peace is possible. That is why he joined the volunteer group.

“We thank God for the Fulani,” he said. He says Fulani neighbors saved many farmers during June’s massacre. “It is not as if the world is so simple — that Fulanis are bad and Beroms are good. Both groups have both kinds of people. We have to be on the side of peace.”

In October, when the vigilantes brought together Amos Lenji, his farmer neighbors and the family of the herdsman whose livestock trampled their cornfields to discuss compensation, everyone was a bit surprised to find out that the opposing parties shared close family friends.

The tension lifted. The farmers proposed that instead of paying for the damaged crops, the herdsman’s kin pay their mediators for fuel to keep doing their work. The two sides shook hands and headed home.

This project was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center.

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