CATTLE, CROPS AND KILLINGS

There is a new shift to agriculture in Nigeria, but in its semi-arid rural parts, the feud for land and resources between farmers and nomadic herdsmen continues to threaten its future.

- Peace Hyde

IN 2018, DANIEL JAMES WAS seated in St. Augustine’s Church in the rural middle belt of Nigeria. By his side in the congregation were his two sisters, and a handful of family members.

They were mourning the demise of his father, Paul James, a 70-year-old farmer who was shot in the head in the dead of night when Fulani herdsmen attacked his village.

“We woke up in the middle of the night to gunshots. They entered my father’s hut and we heard multiple shots and we immediately hid under the bed and waited until they left the area,” says James.

His father fought for his life in intensive care for two weeks before succumbing to his wounds.

The clashes between armed herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria have been escalating for years.

The increasingly violent episodes are as a result of a battle for scarce resources that have invariably stirred up long-held tensions over religion and ethnicity.

The alleged disputes between mostly Christian farmers and Muslim herdsmen have been exacerbated by climate change and desertification, which have caused herdsmen to migrate south in search of resources to feed their cattle and livestock. Their quest for survival has, in turn, angered the local population, leading to attacks and reprisals.

Jonathan Ajioko, a local churchgoer, also mourned his mother and brother in a similar attack in 2018 in Mbalom, Benue State.

“My village is a quiet village and nobody thought something like this would ever happen. They were in church when the attack happened. About 30 people died that day including women and children,” remembers Ajioko.

Two days later, a group of men from his village, armed with guns, set up roadblocks and gunned down anyone they suspected of being “Muslim or Fulani”. A total of 10 people died, according to Ajioko.