Researchers in Nigeria claim a government policy to increase numbers of cattle ranches is a ruse to bring jihadi herdsmen into the Christian south.
The National Livestock Transformation Plan was launched in 2019 to create 119 new ranches in areas designated for cattle-breeding, aiming to quell “the country’s herder-farmer conflict” by assigning land to cattle and avoiding fights for pasture.
However, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has described the initiative as “camouflage for jihadi settlements”.
In a report published on 11 March, Intersociety said it had tracked a pattern in farming communities across Nigeria of people being coerced into relinquishing land for the ranches.
One farmer in the state of Enegu said marauding Fulani herdsmen had destroyed his plantation of over 6,000 palm trees. “I am a victim,” said Chief Johnson Okolo.
The government of Enegu State in southern Nigeria dismissed Intersociety’s accusation that it was sponsoring jihadi settlements as “the unfortunate machination of those who wish to make a mountain out of molehill for political reasons”.
It claimed the ranches were intended to combat “armed bandits and kidnappers” who “in the name of herders have long taken advantage of our forests and farmlands to commit heinous crimes, abductions, rape and killings”.
It said the introduction of ranches in the state would prevent cattle herders from roaming “non-designated areas with their animals for grazing”.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, chair of the board of Intersociety, said it would fight moves to introduce the ranch-plan in Enegu and other southern Nigerian states.
Frequent land clashes between Muslim herdsmen who belong to the Fulani people and Christian farmers have escalated into violence in recent years.
Intersociety, a Catholic-inspired group of researchers, activists and criminologists, said Fulani herdsmen were responsible for the deaths of 3,500 Christians last year, including 200 murdered over Christmas.
Loading ...
