The International Crisis Group has said that violence in Nigeria between cattle herders and farmers has killed around six times more people than deaths related to the Boko Haram insurgency in the first half of 2018.
The group made his known in a statement on Thursday, which posed a major threat to the country’s stability.
It was reported the think-tank as saying that the violence, which is concentrated in the Middle Belt and largely driven by competition over dwindling arable land amid a rapidly growing population, killed more than 1,300 people between January and June this year.
The ICG reports that security was a key challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria fought the Islamist insurgency in the North-East and sought to quell the communal violence before an election in February next year in which he hoped to secure a second term.
According to the ICG reports, “Violence related to grazing rights has occurred for decades but threatens Buhari’s popularity in swing states as herders are mainly from the Fulani ethnic group, as is the President.”
They mentioned that deaths have been politicised as his critics say he has not cracked down on the nomads, which he has denied.
They also noted that the conflict poses a grave threat to the country’s stability and unity and it could affect the 2019 general elections
