By Diana Rose Wairumbi
On Wednesday the Nigerian army said it will deploy troops to tighten security in central states where a series of communal violence has brought about criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In the last few weeks, dozens of people have been killed over fertile land due to clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herdsmen. A mass burial was held in January for 73 people killed in the violence.
Nigerian troops are already fighting the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the northeastern part of the country and were deployed last year to the southern Niger Delta region, and the southeast, to ward off oil vandalism and decrease the influence of secessionists.
The turmoil in central states has risen just ahead of political elections in February 2019 with President Buhari’s critics accusing him of failing to deal accordingly with herdsmen who are mostly from his ethnic group, Fulani.
The army said training exercises would commence in the central states of Taraba, Benue, Kogi, Niger, and Nasarawa along with the northwestern state of Kaduna, from February 15 to March 31.
The need for the deployment had arisen, said the army, “due to [an] upsurge in cases of kidnapping, armed banditry and cattle rustling”, as well as the clashes between herdsmen and farmers and attacks by armed militias.
The exercise is “conceptualised to dovetail into real-time operations, thereby fulfilling both training and operations objectives… providing an avenue to conduct operations against violent criminals when called upon”, the army stated in a statement.
Buhari, a former military ruler, came to office in May 2015 after winning an election in which he promised to improve the security situation in the country, which boasts Africa’s biggest economy.
He has not stated whether he will run for a second presidential term.
The central states – where high tension in differing religious, cultural and ancestral differences, frequently triggers conflict – have been affected in the latest flashpoints.
In the last few years thousands of herdsmen have migrated southwards to escape desertification in the north, increasing pressure on decreasing fertile land amid a rapid population growth.
There has been a split roughly equally between the Christians and the Muslims from around 250 different ethnic groups for whom mostly live peacefully together, despite the recent outbreaks of violence.
