Since
2001, nomadic cattle herders in Nigeria who are mainly of the Fulani
ethnic group from the north-western and north-eastern parts have been
attacking sedentary farmers in their homes and farms across the country,
particularly central Nigeria, over "grazing rights". The attacks,
similar to the "Janjaweed" raids in Darfur, Sudan, have resulted to
thousands of deaths, burning of homes and displacement of hundreds of
thousands of villagers from their ancestral lands. And now, they {Fulani
herdsmen) are occupying abandoned homes and farmlands of the dead and
the displaced. Apart from the many lives and properties that have been
lost in the crises, survivors in many of the affected areas cannot go to
their farms again as some have been killed in such attempts.
The streams and lakes from where my community gets its drinking water are no longer safe as they now float with cow dungs. There is hunger and disease, and the killings and burning of homes are still ongoing.
There is more than enough land in the places where these fulanis come from to accommodate their cattle-if the unbridled grazing habit of cattle herders had not destroyed the grassland there and accelerated desertification.
The Nigerian govt has not done much to either protect the farmers, bring the perpetrators to book or compel the Fulanis to change from nomadic grazing of cattle to the modern system of breeding animals in demarcated and or fenced premises.
Kindly help impress it on the federal govt of Nigeria, which controls all the security forces of the country and have the final say on any matter of national security, to make it mandatory for the Fulanis and other cattle owners to RANCH THEIR CATTLE and save human lives, and save the biodiversity of the affected areas.
The following are just but a few links that provide insights into the horrors of the nomadic Fulanis and sedentary farmers' crises in Nigeria.
http://williamukor.blogspot.com.ng/
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fulani-herdsmen-kill-80-in-attack-on-benue-community/204180/
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/suspected-fulani-herdsmen-kill-28-injure-many-in-benue/
The streams and lakes from where my community gets its drinking water are no longer safe as they now float with cow dungs. There is hunger and disease, and the killings and burning of homes are still ongoing.
There is more than enough land in the places where these fulanis come from to accommodate their cattle-if the unbridled grazing habit of cattle herders had not destroyed the grassland there and accelerated desertification.
The Nigerian govt has not done much to either protect the farmers, bring the perpetrators to book or compel the Fulanis to change from nomadic grazing of cattle to the modern system of breeding animals in demarcated and or fenced premises.
Kindly help impress it on the federal govt of Nigeria, which controls all the security forces of the country and have the final say on any matter of national security, to make it mandatory for the Fulanis and other cattle owners to RANCH THEIR CATTLE and save human lives, and save the biodiversity of the affected areas.
The following are just but a few links that provide insights into the horrors of the nomadic Fulanis and sedentary farmers' crises in Nigeria.
http://williamukor.blogspot.com.ng/
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/fulani-herdsmen-kill-80-in-attack-on-benue-community/204180/
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/suspected-fulani-herdsmen-kill-28-injure-many-in-benue/
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