Ethnic cleansing in central Nigeria

While MECASR rarely documents security related news from Nigeria a recent act of violence has caught our attention. On 7 March dozens of Muslim Hausa-Fulani herders brandishing simple weapons such as clubs, machetes and knives attacked predominantly Borom Christian villages outside of Jos in Plateau State. Some reports indicate that the attackers used fishing nets and animal traps to snare their vicitms, mainly women and children, before hacking them to death. The aftermath of the attack has shocked locals and the world. Over 500 bodies have so far been recovered from the early sunday morning blood-letting and the army has been placed on alert and deployed to the state. The violence follows similiar communal clashes in January that left approximately 300 people dead. The fact that such violence is allowed to continue is a serious endictment of the local security forces and Nigerian domestic intelligence services. The Nigerian government is well aware of the simmering tensions along the Muslim north and Christian south faultine which cuts Nigeria in half through Plateau state but has put few measures in place to counter the problem. Competition over local farmland, cattle theft and migration of northerners into central Nigeria has been the primary motivation for the violence and if these issues are not addressed quickly further communal violence is likely. MECASR continues to watch developments closely and the reaction of the current regime which is being led by stand-in president Goodluck Jonathan.