Hundreds of people stormed Makurdi, the capital of Nigeria’s eastern Benue state, on Wednesday protesting the death of 20 farmers allegedly killed by cattle herders, a local civil society group said.
The farmers in Guma and Logo local government areas were reportedly killed by Fulani herdsmen in a series of attacks that took place on Monday and Tuesday.
The mainly Muslim nomadic cattle rearers have been clashing with largely Christian farmers over grazing rights in Nigeria for decades.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Benue governor Samuel Ortom said that more than 20 people were killed in the violence, though an official toll has yet to be released.
“People were slaughtered like animals,” Ortom was quoted as saying by Nigerian newspaper The Guardian.
More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Makurdi and blocked the highway on Wednesday morning, according to Helen Teghtegh, the head of local non-governmental organisation Community Links.
“There have been no policies implemented to slow down the attacks made by Fulani herdsmen,” she said.
“We feel that (President Muhammadu Buhari) being a Fulani man, he’s turning a blind eye on the issue.”
Teghtegh said another protest was planned for Thursday.
The killings usually occur at the end of rainy season between December and March, when the Fulani pastoralists arrive in large numbers to graze their cattle and the farmers start harvesting yams.
But as the country’s population explodes – Nigeria is set to become the world’s third most populous country by 2050 according to the UN – the battle over land is intensifying.
Hundreds of people were reported dead in Benue state in early 2016 following a week-long clash between herdsmen and farmers.
In November, at least 30 people were killed after farmers attacked herdsmen in the Numan district in eastern Adamawa state.
The violence is a perennial security headache for Nigeria, which has been battling Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast since 2009 and a flare-up of militancy in the oil-producing south.
- AFP
