A Nigerian plan to reconcile farmers and herders is not working

CHIGOZIE OBIOMA and his family moved to Benue state in 2004 for its tranquillity. Last week, however, Chigozie’s father was awoken by bomb blasts, as the army tried to dislodge an armed band of suspected cattle thieves hiding nearby. Conflict over land and cattle, which has always been common in the north of country, is spreading farther south and becoming more intense, despite a government plan intended to curb it.For centuries Fulani nomads have herded cattle across west Africa, travelling along established routes from Nigeria to Mali. But as the region’s population has grown, there are ever more people living in their path. What is more, climate change has reduced the amount of water and grazing available along northerly routes, diverting more and more Fulani into Nigeria’s agricultural heartland to the south. When villagers try to turn the pastoralists away, violent altercations are common. Cattle rustling, a common vice, adds to the volatility. Raids and reprisals sometimes lead to villages or nomadic encampments being burned, and herders or farmers killed. In April, for instance, 83 people died in what appears to have been fighting between locals and pastoralists in three villages in Zamfara state.