What is Nigeria’s “Third Conflict”?

Sep 26, 2016 | E.A.D.W.
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Last week armed men attacked a community in Enugu, a state in Nigeria’s south-east. Local press reported that they kidnapped two villagers and that another was “feared dead.” The blame quickly fell on nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who have also been held responsible for a wave of similar attacks across Nigeria. Clashes between the nomads and indigenous tribes killed more than 1,200 people in 2014, the latest year for which figures are available, according to the Global Terrorism Index. The conflict has gathered pace in recent months. In February, the nomads were accused of murdering 300 people in Benue, a central state. By September this year some 873 people had been killed in various kinds of sectarian violence, including Fulani-related attacks, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Nigerian army is already fighting Boko Haram’s jihadists in the north-east and the so-called “Niger Delta Avengers” in the oil-producing south. 

The fight is between Fulani herdsmen and indigenous tribesmen in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt,” which covers the central swathe of the country and is populated by Muslims and Christians of more than 200 ethnicities. The tribes have sparred since independence from British rule in 1960, but increased competition for land has exacerbated old ethnic and religious tensions.