The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Clashes between cattle herders and farmers pose a threat to countries across West Africa and the Sahel, the UN warned on Thursday, after Nigeria’s parliament summoned President Muhammadu Buhari over escalating violence.
Lawmakers from Nigeria’s lower chamber of parliament, the House of Representatives, called for Buhari to explain what his government was doing to stop increasingly bloody clashes in the country’s central region.
On Tuesday, at least 18 people, including two Roman Catholic priests, were killed in an attack on a church near the state capital Makurdi that was blamed on herdsmen.
Eleven ethnic Hausa traders were killed in Makurdi in retaliation, with unconfirmed reports of separate attacks elsewhere in the restive state.
The violence coincided with a meeting of ministers from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to discuss seasonal migration of livestock.
In West Africa and the Sahel, there are more than 60 million cattle, according to Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, the president of the ECOWAS Commission.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said there had been an increase in clashes regionwide.
He said in a speech that a resource conflict was being aggravated by rapid population growth, climate change, poor implementation of legislation and the availability of weapons.
Wider criminality was further exacerbating tensions.
“Farmers-herders conflict is the new sub-regional security threat,” he said.
“Urgent action is needed to resolve conflict in countries currently experiencing high levels of violence between herders and farmers,” he added.
“Sustained conflict prevention efforts are needed to stop violence from taking root and the state needs to be actively involved, working with local communities.”
– No confidence –
Buhari denounced this week’s attacks in Benue state as “evil and satanic”, and has previously called for restraint on all sides.
The government’s proposal is to create cattle ranches or grazing colonies for herds but that has been fiercely opposed in some states, including in Benue.
