Herdsmen Conflict Six Times Deadlier Than Boko Haram – ICG

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has reported that more than 1,300 people have been killed in Nigeria since January 2018 in herdsmen-farmers clash.

In its latest report released on Thursday, Stopping Nigeria’s Spiralling Farmer-Herder Violence, observed that the conflict was now more deadly than Boko Haram.

“The farmer-herder conflict has become Nigeria’s gravest security challenge, now claiming far more lives than the Boko Haram insurgency. It has displaced hundreds of thousands and sharpened ethnic, regional and religious polarisation. It threatens to become even deadlier and could affect forthcoming elections and undermine national stability,” the report stated.

According to the ICG, the conflict was “now claiming about six times more civilian lives than the Boko Haram insurgency, the conflict poses a grave threat to the country’s stability and unity, and it could affect the 2019 general elections.”

It noted that while the federal government has taken steps to address the conflict, they were insufficient to halt the killings.

It called on the federal government “to deploy more security units to vulnerable areas; prosecute perpetrators of violence; disarm ethnic militias and local vigilantes; and begin executing long-term plans for comprehensive livestock sector reform,” and urged “the Benue state government should freeze enforcement of its law banning open grazing, review that law’s provisions and encourage a phased transition to ranching.”