NIGERIA: COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN PLATEAU STATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000014

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/02/2012
TAGS: PGOV PINS SOCI CASC NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN PLATEAU STATE


REF: 01 ABUJA 2255


Classified by CDA Andrews for reason 1.5 (d.)



1. (U) Summary: December 30-31 communal violence in Plateau
State has resulted in numerous deaths and scattered property
damage. Death estimates range between 33 and 90 people. The
proximate cause of the encounters was the perennial
competition over land between cattle herders (mostly
Hausa/Fulani) and farmers (ethnic Biroms.) The fighting
occurred near Vom, approximately 10 miles south of the state
capital, Jos, and did not approach Jos. The military has
been deployed and the Vom area is quiet. Consular wardens
report that Jos is also calm and that no Amcits were caught
in the melee. End summary.



2. (U) According to a statement issued by the Plateau State
Government and carried by the local press, the violence
erupted when forty armed men attacked the home of the
district head of Vwang district in the Jos South Local
Government Area during the early morning hours of December

30. Eighteen people reportedly were killed, including eight
attackers who were shot after being pursued by a joint
army-police security task force. (Comment: Press reports
referred to the culprits as "foreign bandits." That these
raiders were non-Nigerians who crossed an international
border to carry out this attack seems unlikely. More
plausible is that the press picked up on the local usage of
"foreign," which would imply the attackers were Hausa/Fulani
or some other ethnic group not considered "indigenous" to the
area. The other major ethnic groups in the Jos vicinity
pejoratively consider Hausa/Fulani as alien to the area
although they have resided there since the 19th century and
were the cardinal force behind the founding of Jos in the
early 1900's. End comment.)



3. (SBU) That the Birom attributed the December 30 attack to
the Hausa/Fulani soon became evident. Later in the day,
reprisal attacks were carried out against Hausa/Fulani
resident in the Vwang district. Some of these attacks may
have continued until December 31. Death estimates from the
reprisals range from 15 to 70. (The higher figure comes from
Dutch expatriates working in the vicinity.) The news of the
original attacks and the reprisals spread quickly, causing
many Plateau State inhabitants to fear a replay of the early
September violence that claimed over 2,000 lives in Jos.
Several hundreds, mostly of Hausa/Fulani apparently sought
refuge from the feared escalation at the 3rd armored Division
barracks in Rukuba. Also many merchants in Jos hurriedly
closed shop or refused to open on hearing of the clashes,
according to Colonel Mohammed Inra Idris, Special Assistant
to National Security Advisor Aliyu Mohammed.



4. (SBU) Idris discounted any direct connection between the
December 30-31 flare ups and the earlier September violence.
Instead, this latter episode seemed very localized, confined
to the district around Vom. Professor John Elaigwu at the
Institute of Governance and Social Responsibility at the
University of Jos also concurred with this assessment.
Elaigwu, who served as Director General of the
Inter-governmental Institute on Conflict Resolution during
the Abacha years, stated that the violence was the product of
perennial dispute over land usage between cattle herders and
farmers. Particularly during the dry season, fertile land is
at a premium. Competition between those who seek the land
for grazing and those who want it for cultivation is
heightened. In this case, the pressure gradually built until
reaching a point where it had to be vented. Religion crept
into the equation as at most a secondary consideration.
Herders tend to be Hausa/Fulani Muslims while the farmers are
ethnic Birom and Anguta, who are mainly Christian.


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Return To Calm, For Now
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5. (U) Security forces and the Plateau State Government seem
to have reacted swiftly to contain the violence.
Approximately 150 soldiers and policemen have been deployed
to the troubled area. The State Government has also
tightened the midnight curfew established after the September
eruption.



6. (U) Amcit wardens report the American Community is well
but note concerns among their Nigerian acquaintances that
further violence could erupt if forces relax their vigilance
or reduce their presence



7. (C) Comment: the temptation to draw a causal link between
the September Jos violence and what just happened in Vom is
understandable. While a few observers have attempted this
nexus, the weight of evidence suggests no direct connection
between the two episodes. The December 30-31 violence
appears the result of chronic land use competition that
unfortunately went from bad to worse for many of the area's
inhabitants. Yet, given the high anxiety and residual
tension in Plateau State as a result of the September
trouble, authorities are concerned that violence of any sort
can spread and take on larger dimensions. For now, it
appears that the authorities halted this potential dynamic
before it could expand and assume a more minatory ethnic or
religious coloration. End comment.
Andrews