[Puffer Fish]

Violence in Nigeria continues between the Christian south and the Muslim north that's further inland, drier and full of sand.


Nigeria: Christmas Massacre Death Toll Hits 195, 10,000 Displaced, More Than 1,000 Homes Burned Down

Local authorities in Plateau state, Nigeria, updated the death toll of a presumed jihadist massacre of Christians beginning on Christmas Eve to 195 people on Thursday, warning that the arduous search for bodies in the bush continues and will likely add to the catastrophic number of lives lost.

Attackers identified in Nigerian media as “bandits,” believed to be members of the majority-Muslim Fulani ethnic group, went on a killing and pillaging rampage in the heart of Plateau beginning on Christmas Eve, burning down hundreds of homes and killing entire families. The mass murder, which law enforcement authorities described as “well coordinated,” was the latest in a string of killings that religious freedom advocates and Christians on the ground denounce as genocide — an attempt by the Fulani to eradicate the Christian presence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region and usurp its territory.

The Middle Belt is the dividing line between Nigeria’s majority-Christian south and majority-Muslim north. Populations there, particularly in Plateau and Benue state, are predominantly Christian farming communities and have experienced a dramatic rise in genocidal violence on the part of Muslim Fulani who demand access to the farmland to graze cattle. As a result, some international voices claim the conflict is about the use of the land without a religious dimension and exacerbated by “climate change.” Local persecuted Christians aggressively reject this diagnosis.

https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2023/1 ... rned-down/
December 2023

[Potemkin]

Like most serious conflicts, there seems to be an economic basis to it, which is exacerbated by religious and ethnic differences. This is as much a conflict between cattle herders and farmers as it is between Muslims and Christians.

[Puffer Fish]

Like most serious conflicts, there seems to be an economic basis to it, which is exacerbated by religious and ethnic differences. This is as much a conflict between cattle herders and farmers as it is between Muslims and Christians.

I don't believe you are right so much. Usually that is the case involving smaller conflicts in Africa, but not so much here.

The South has much more wealth and control over the government. More control means the South is often looking after its own interests and does not spend as much money in the North. The North has to realise that even if they broke away from the South, they would still not have the wealth that the South has.
Maybe the North feels oppressed by the South, but I think they are being unrealistic if they think breaking away and having their own government would make things much better.

For the most part, I don't think you can really find a logical rational explanation for what the Islamic militants in the North are doing. It seems to be mainly about wanting to impose their totalitarian religion and claiming victimhood, blaming the Nigerian government and Western culture for their problems.
There are of course high poverty rates in the North and lots of desperate people, which is feeding the violence.

There is some element of tribal ethnic conflict, since the majority of the Islamic militants come from the Kanuri ethnic group, the third largest in Nigeria. They are most identifiable by their heavy accents, and some of the women traditionally have facial scar tattoos.

Some more information about the reasons behind the conflict in this thread:
Feminists in UN sympathise with terrorist muslims

I think the people in the North in some areas are angry at the South for bringing in military forces to crush the rebellion, which seems to have brought conflict and only caused more poverty in the region, but they also have to know that the Islamic militants have carried out much more horrifically violent attacks on villages and innocent civilians that did not submit to them.

[Deutschmania]

Here is what I have found out . It seems to me to be analogous to a , range war , with religion used as a pretext . Of course , as I like @Potemkin are historical materialists , we will be inclined to see such things in terms of class war , rather than holy war . And unless there is a material interest , the international community , most namely the United States , cannot be depended upon to step in , whether or not it should .

[albionfagan]

Is Nigeria tenable in the long term? The country was thrown together on a whim, and has no real coherence. Could we see a Yugoslavia style disintegration in the coming years? I understand the tension between Yoruba and Igbo is not so great anymore though.

[Potemkin]

Is Nigeria tenable in the long term? The country was thrown together on a whim, and has no real coherence. Could we see a Yugoslavia style disintegration in the coming years? I understand the tension between Yoruba and Igbo is not so great anymore though.

I think the Biafra War settled the issue - Nigeria is a viable state, at least as much as the US was in the 19th century.