No fewer than six people were killed last weekend in a fierce clash between cattle herders and farmers in northeast Nigeria, a state government official confirmed it on Tuesday.
The clash occurred on Sunday in the Numan district of Adamawa state, where militia from the ethnic Bachama farming community killed at least 30 Fulani herders last November.
The Information commissioner of Adamawa state, Ahmad Sajo told AFP that at least six people were feared dead and many others injured in attacks on two villages, Kikan and Lauru.
He said, “A group of cattle herders from the Fulani ethnic group attacked Kikan, a village in Bachama, killing three people, injuring many and carting away with cattle.”
“The Bachama youths then mobilized and launched a reprisal attack on nearby Lauru village.”
Unfortunately the attacks targeted the wrong community, as Lauru people are Hausa-speaking Muslims not Fulani.
Sajo said, “They are very vast vegetable growers. Three of their people were killed by the Bachama’s, with one injured and their entire village torched to the ground.”
Reprisal attacks in most central states in Nigeria have led to thousands of deaths in recent decades. Religion has caused a lot of ethnic crisis and sectarian tensions.
The Fulani are Muslims while the farmers are mostly Christains.
The uprising tensions have been caused by the need for land and water to drink for their livestocks by the normadic herders, pushing them into grazing beyond their normal land.
Earlier this month, more than 70 people from the Tiv farming community were killed in the central state of Benue, bringing the issue to the fore once again.
President Muhammadu Buhari have been accused of failing to address the issue of clashes between locals and Fulani herdsmen despite seeking a second term in office at elections next February.
He has rejected claims that it is because he is also of Fulani descent, while the herders have said they have seen more than 1,000 killed since last June.
Failure to prosecute those responsible, even where the perpetrators are known to the authorities, has been seen as a major factor in causing the spiral of violence.