NPR: The Rule of Law Is Crumbling in Rural Nigeria
2018 was an exceptionally bloody year in the country’s ongoing conflict between farmers and pastoralists.
Saminu Mohammad is a Fulani cattle herder who decided to defy Benue State’s ban on cattle grazing. (Tim McDonnell)
This story first appeared in NPR.
Deadly conflicts between farmers and cattle herders in central Nigeria over land and natural resources reached a high point in 2018, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
In 2018, more than 2,000 people were killed in such conflicts, the report found. That's more than the previous two years combined, and hundreds more than were killed by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The death toll this year, the report found, was exacerbated by the government's failure to keep the peace and investigate and prosecute the attackers.
Overall, the report — which details three years of clashes — paints a picture of a conflict in which both farmers and pastoralists across Nigeria's Middle Belt region have lost confidence in the rule of law and feel empowered to retaliate against their neighbors with impunity.