Rights Group Slams Nigerian Authorities For Failing People Amid Herder-Farmer Conflict

A prominent human rights watchdog lashed out at Nigerian authorities on Monday for failing to adequately respond to the escalating conflict between farmers and herders over the use of land, which has turned increasingly violent over the past three years and claimed the lives of over 3,600 people

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2018) A prominent human rights watchdog lashed out at Nigerian authorities on Monday for failing to adequately respond to the escalating conflict between farmers and herders over the use of land, which has turned increasingly violent over the past three years and claimed the lives of over 3,600 people.

"The Nigerian authorities' failure to investigate communal clashes and bring perpetrators to justice has fuelled a bloody escalation in the conflict between farmers and herders across the country, resulting in at least 3,641 deaths in the past three years and the displacement of thousands more," Amnesty International said in a statement published on its official website, adding that the year 2018 accounted for 57 percent of all deaths that had occurred since 2015.

According to the watchdog, on some occasions, locals had been warning the authorities about upcoming raids � which are fraught with mass murders, looting and burning of houses � and pleading for help, but the government failed to act.

"The Nigerian government has displayed what can only be described as gross incompetence .

.. Our research shows that these attacks were well planned and coordinated, with the use of weapons like machine guns and AK-47 rifles. Yet, little has been done by the authorities in terms of prevention, arrests and prosecutions," Director of Amnesty International Nigeria Osai Ojigho was quoted as saying by the watchdog's official website.

The director also noted that the conflict initially had nothing to do with either ethnic or religious tensions.

"But in some places, because of the failures of the security forces, competition over resources is used as a pretext to kill and maim along ethnic or religious lines. The conflict has also been dangerously politicized by some state government officials who have inflamed tensions by embarking on a blame game along political party lines," Ojigho added.

The conflict between Nigerian farmers and herders started escalating in the end of the 1990s. However, the confrontation has been turning more violent over the past few yeas as competition for land between the two groups has become even more fierce in the face of climate change and desertification.