Relative calm has been restored to villages to the south of Jos after armed men went on the rampage over the weekend, killing scores of people and destroying homes and businesses.
IHS Global Insight Perspective
Significance: An estimated 200
people were killed following a raid on three villages to the south of the
Plateau State capital of Jos in the early hours of Sunday (7 March). The attack
has been blamed on Hausa-Fulani herdsmen against Christians in the region in a
reprisal attack for an earlier massacre in January 2010.
Implications: The
security forces were visibly caught unawares, even though local media had
reported signs of a potential flare-up in Jos and surrounding areas last month.
In response, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has moved to dismiss his
national security advisor and replaced him with a household name in Aliyu
Gusau.
Outlook: What
is required is a long-term, sustainable solution to the crisis in Jos and its
environs. The violence goes deeper than religious differences and has more to
do with land rights and socioeconomic tensions.
Humanitarian workers
are still counting the number of fatalities in villages to the south of the
Plateau State capital of Jos after armed men waged a brutal attack on villagers
in the early hours of 7 March 2010 . Media reports and aid agencies seem to
corroborate that the attack was instigated by Muslim Fulani herdsmen against
the largely Christian community in what appears to be a reprisal attack for an
earlier outbreak of sectarian violence in January 2010 . Eye-witness accounts
suggest that the Fulani pastoralists stormed into the villages, fired gunshots
into the air, and when villagers came out of their homes to see what was going
on, they were slaughtered with machetes. Thus far, the death toll varies
widely, with government figures stating that over 500 have been killed while
humanitarian agencies have reported figures of around 200. Part of the problem
in verifying the number of fatalities is the fact that some of the dead were
buried quickly. Homes and businesses were burned in the process and security
forces have been put on high alert, with troops deployed to Jos and the
surrounding areas. The government is undoubtedly under pressure to act fast and
get to the heart of the frustrations in this region, particularly as this
latest outbreak occurred so soon after the January atrocities.
Gross Security Lapses
The military curfew
that Jos has been under since January 2010, after at least 200 people were
killed in inter-religious fighting, failed to prevent this latest attack. Three
villages—Dogo Nahawa, Ramsat and Kamang in the Shen district of the Jos South
Local Government Area—were not provided with security prior to the attack, even
though in February there had been reports in the local media of a possible
repeat of the January massacre after farms were destroyed and someone was
killed, reportedly at the hands of Fulani tribesmen, according to the Daily Champion. Thus, the lax security visibly provided the
assailants with a window of opportunity. Most of the recent victims appear to
have been the vulnerable. Mark Lipdo from the Christian charity Stefanos said,
"We saw mainly those who are helpless, like small children and … older men
who cannot run; these were the ones that were slaughtered”, the BBC reports.
The government, now
under the leadership of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, is keen to show
that it is in control of the situation. Advisor to the Plateau State
government, Dan Manjang, told reporters that 95 arrests have been made and that
security forces have been deployed to the affected areas, in which calm has
been restored for the time being. Jonathan has ordered that the security forces
keep a tight check on border controls for goods and persons entering into
Plateau State to ensure that no weapons are brought in. However, according to
an Associated Press reporter who passed through seven checkpoints where
searches ought to have been carried out, none were done as some of the staging
posts were unmanned, while at others the police just allowed cars to pass
through unchecked.
In a sign that
Jonathan is keen to find a solution to the recurring crisis in Jos, the Acting
President dismissed his national security adviser, Sarki Mukhtar, yesterday (8
March). Mukhtar has been replaced with Aliyu Gusau, who was the national
security adviser under former president Olusegun Obasanjo. Meanwhile, the U.S.
government is pressing for Nigeria to investigate and prosecute those
responsible, but in a manner in keeping with the rule of law and transparency.
International non-governmental organisation (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) has
urged the government to provide police protection for villagers in areas
surrounding Jos.
Root Cause
Jos, situated in
Nigeria’s middle belt, has become synonymous with flare-ups of this kind,
pointing to deep-seated frustrations manifested in religious polarisation. The
middle belt is a mix of ethnic groups; more than 50 ethnic groups reside in
Plateau State alone and at times inter-ethnic violence erupts as ideological
differences are exploited. Jos is home to a majority of Christians, largely
from the Berom, Anaguta, and Afisare ethnic groups, and land is a particularly
emotive subject for the majority of peasant farmers. Indeed, some eye-witness
accounts describe how some Hausa-Fulani-speaking cattlemen sought to take land,
Associated Press reports. Economic difficulties have exacerbated tensions in
the past. For instance, around the time when Shari'a law was introduced in 1999
in certain northern states of Nigeria, tensions rose as unemployment also took
hold.
Outlook and
Implications
This upsurge in violence has occurred at a time when Nigeria is
experiencing an unsettling period politically, with the president absent from
political life for over three months. Just as Jonathan was perhaps getting into
his stride as acting president after weeks of inertia, he is now saddled with
the very pressing task of dealing with the volatile situation in Jos. He will
be required to ponder the root causes of the recurrent unrest in order to find
sustainable solutions rather than just papering over the deep-seated divisions
with cosmetic, short-term answers. Otherwise, there is genuine concern that
hostilities could resurrect. Land ownership is a deep-seated cause of
frustration, so the government will need to show its readiness to tackle the
issue, perhaps by taking an inclusive approach, but in order for this to
happen, the challenge is to find out precisely who is responsible for the
attack. At the same time, Jonathan must be mindful not to neglect other
flashpoints for potential violence in the country, namely the Niger Delta where
militant groups have previously resumed hostilities when the government is
preoccupied with other developments.
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29/06/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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29/06/2006| |
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28/06/2006| |
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26/06/2006| |
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26/06/2006| |
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21/06/2006| |
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21/06/2006| |
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20/06/2006| |
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20/06/2006| |
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04/06/2006| |
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09/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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03/05/2006| |
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18/02/2006| |
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04/02/2006| |
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04/02/2006| |
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29/01/2006| |
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23/09/2005| |
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