The jihadi group Boko Haram are usually
characterized as the biggest threat to Nigeria’s state security and even as one
of the world’s deadliest militant groups.
But in the first four months of
2016, Boko Haram have actually been responsiblefor less deaths—208 to be
precise—than other sectarian groups in Nigeria combined, which have accounted
for 438 deaths so far, according to the Council on Foreign
Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker. A huge
chunk of these are down to an ongoing conflict between predominantly Fulani
herdsmen and settled farming communities, which is costing the Nigerian economy
billions of dollars per year as well as hundreds—if not thousands—of lives.
The Fulani —also known as the Fula or
Peul—constitute a mostly Muslim people scattered throughout West Africa but
concentrated in certain places, such as northern Nigeria. Fulanis are primarily
nomadic cattle herders who follow their livestock along migratory patterns.
This wandering lifestyle has brought them into conflict with settled farming
communities in Nigeria, who have accused the Fulani of cattle rustling,
kidnapping and murder.
Clashes between mostly Fulani herdsmen and
settled communities have been concentrated in north central Nigeria,
particularly the states of Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Nassarawa. Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an inquiry into clashes between
herdsmen and farmers in Benue at the end of February, which reportedly resulted
in hundreds of deaths and thousands being displaced. As well as the
obvious security threat, the low-level battles are draining Nigeria’s economy
of resources and potential funds. A series of reports published in July 2015 by
global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps found that the four problem states stood
to gain up to $13.7 billion annually in total macroeconomic benefits
if the conflict between herdsmen and farmers was reduced to near-zero. And the
benefits are not just limited to state-level—Nigerian households affected by
the ongoing clashes could expect their incomes to increase by between 64 and
210 percent were the conflicts to be resolved.
Nigeria’s Middle Belt—where the four problem
states are located—is an area of ethnic and religious diversity, where the
majority Muslim north meets the largely Christian south. On top of this, the
Fulani have historical rivalries with other ethnic groups in Nigeria,
particularly the Hausa. Led by the religious reformer Usman dan Fodio, a
Fulani army fought a four-year jihad in the predominantly Hausa states of what
is now northern Nigeria, eventually triumphing and establishing the Sokoto
caliphate. The caliphate was one of the most prominent African empires in the
19th century and was only abolished by the British in 1903.
Because of this fraught geography and history,
the herdsmen-farmer conflict is often characterized as ethnic or religious in
nature. But this is a mischaracterization, according to Lisa Inks, one of the
authors of the Mercy Corps reports. “We definitely believe that the conflicts
are caused primarily by competition for scarce resources,” says Inks, citing
land and water as the two major conflict drivers. According to Inks, solutions
lie in supporting both parties by the establishment of grazing reserves for
livestock, increasing funding for communities affected by the clashes and
improving security at conflict hotspots.
The security implications of marauding, armed
Fulani herdsmen are significant for Nigeria, already struggling to contain
the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast , revived militant attacks
on oil facilities in the Niger Delta andsubstantial pro-Biafran
protests in the southeast. If taken together, casualties attributed to
Fulani herdsmen in 2014 totaled 1,229, according to the Institute for
Economics & Peace Global Terrorism Index 2015. It is problematic, however,
to group Fulani herdsmen together into a single unit and classify them as a
terrorist movement, according to Leena Koni Hoffman, Nigeria expert and
associate fellow at Chatham House. Fulani herdsmen cannot be considered a
terrorist group akin to Boko Haram or the Islamic State militant group (ISIS),
says Hoffman, because of “the absence of a core ideology around the violence.”
Despite the lack of an ideological basis,
links between the organized militants of Boko Haram and the roaming Fulani
herdsmen have been suggested before. According to Hoffman,
collaboration between herdsmen and Boko Haram is unlikely in terms of formal
affiliation but could take place in different types of “criminal activity,”
such as cattle rustling. “There could be a link between groups who are
exploiting the context of insecurity and instability [in Nigeria] to strengthen
their position,” says Hoffman.
Whether such links exist or not, the
herdsmen-farmers conflict is clearly damaging Buhari’s vision of a unified
Nigeria and sucking potential resources and revenues out of the country. “The
farmer-herdsmen conflict is not even the most high-profile conflict in
Nigeria,” says Inks, “[But] even this ongoing, relatively low-level
intercommunal conflict is costing the country billions.”
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