LAGOS: Eighty people have been killed in Nigeria’s central state of Benue since Dec. 31 following clashes between cattle herders and farmers that have displaced tens of thousands, an emergency official said on Tuesday.
The violence between mostly Muslim herders and Christian farmers intensified over the New Year, fueled by a new law banning the nomadic cattle herders from moving through the state.
There have been similar tit-for-tat attacks elsewhere in central states, polarizing Nigerians along religious and ethnic lines and putting the spotlight on the federal government for failing to curb the violence.
“Eighty is the number we can say for now, the attacks have not stopped,” Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) executive secretary Emmanuel Shior told AFP by telephone.
Shior said the killings had displaced thousands of people in the districts of Guma and Logo who are now seeking shelter in four camps.
“The number (of internally displaced people) is 80,000 now because the killings have continued, some of the people in other states are running to Benue,” Shior said from the Benue state capital, Makurdi.
“We suspect these people are reacting against the open grazing prohibition put in place by the governor of Benue state.”
The prohibition was meant to encourage the herdsmen, who belong to the Fulani ethnic group, to shift from nomadic grazing to ranching cattle, which would theoretically prevent bloody disputes over land with farmers.
But when the new law was introduced last year, it was instantly condemned by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), the umbrella body of Fulani herders in Nigeria, who said it threatened their way of life.
“It is very wrong for a governor to ban Fulani from feeding their cows. These cows are their living,” said Haruna Usman, Kaduna state chairman of MACBAN.
“That is where the government made a big mistake,” Usman said, calling for negotiations.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s government held a closed-door meeting on Monday to discuss the crisis, which represents another security concern along with Boko Haram Islamists in the north and Niger Delta militants in the south.
Following the meeting, Benue State governor Samuel Ortom said he would not back down on the new law.
“All cattle breeders or rearers are allowed to be in Benue state, but they must ranch their livestock,” Ortom said, according to the Premium Times news site.
Buhari has ramped up security in the region and ordered police reinforcements in Benue.
“The killings must stop and the security agencies have the President’s support to do this as quickly as possible,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said.
But human rights group Amnesty International said more was needed to stop the bloodshed.
“The pattern of attacks and reprisals is reaching a boiling point because of the failure of authorities to carry out investigations and end the rampant impunity for previous crimes,” said Isa Sanusi, media manager for Amnesty International Nigeria.
“It is not enough for government to make pronouncements or issue condemnations, it is vital that those responsible are punished.”
The International Crisis Group security think-tank warned last September the conflict was becoming “as potentially dangerous as the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.”
It also threatens Buhari’s popularity in the run-up to Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election. The 75-year-old former military ruler is himself a Hausa-speaking Fulani.
Buhari came into power in 2015 pledging bring security and stability to Nigeria.
But both have been elusive with Boko Haram insurgents launching deadly attacks and an economic recession dampening growth.
Death toll from Nigeria rural violence reaches 80
Death toll from Nigeria rural violence reaches 80
EU leaders begin India visit ahead of ‘mother of all deals’ trade pact
- Antonio Luis Santos da Costa, Ursula von der Leyen are chief guests at Republic Day function
- Access to EU market will help mitigate India’s loss of access to US following Trump’s tariffs
New Delhi: Europe’s top leaders have arrived in New Delhi to participate in Republic Day celebrations on Monday, ahead of a key EU-India Summit and the conclusion of a long-sought free trade agreement.
European Council President Antonio Luis Santos da Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in India over the weekend, invited as chief guests of the 77th Republic Day parade.
They will hold talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the EU-India Summit, where they are expected to announce a comprehensive trade agreement after years of stalled negotiations.
Von der Leyen called it the “mother of all deals” at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week — a reference made earlier by India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal — as it will create a market of 2 billion people.
“The India-EU FTA has been a long time coming as negotiations have been going on between the two for more than a decade. Some of the red lines that prevented the signing of the FTA continue to this date, but it seems that the trade negotiations have found a way around it,” said Anupam Manur, professor of economics at the Takshashila Institution.
“The main contentious issue remains the Indian government’s desire to protect the farmers and dairy producers from competition and the European Union’s strict climate-based rules and taxation. Despite this, both see enormous value in the trade deal.”
India already has free trade agreements with more than a dozen countries, including Australia, the UAE, and Japan.
The pact with the EU would be its third in less than a year, after it signed a multibillion CEPA (comprehensive economic partnership agreement) with the UK in July and another with Oman in December. A week after the Oman deal, New Delhi also concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement with New Zealand, as it races to secure strategic and trade ties with the rest of the world, after US President Donald Trump slapped it with 50 percent tariffs.
The EU is also facing tariff uncertainty. Earlier this month Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on several EU countries unless they supported his efforts to take over Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark.
“The expediting factor in the trade deal is the unilateral and economically irrational trade decisions taken by their biggest trading partner, the United States,” Manur told Arab News.
Being subject to the highest tariff rates, India has been required to sign FTAs with other major economies. Access to the EU market would help mitigate the loss of access to the US.
The EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods, accounting for about $136 billion in the financial year 2024-25.
Before the tariffs, India enjoyed a $45 billion trade surplus with the US, exporting nearly $80 billion. To the EU’s 27 member states, it exports about $75 billion.
“This can be sizably increased after the FTA,” Manur said. “Purely in value terms, this would be the biggest FTA for India, surpassing the successful FTAs with the UK, Australia, Oman and the UAE.”
