{"id":367743,"date":"2017-11-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=367743"},"modified":"2017-11-02T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T12:00:00","slug":"nigeria-grazing-ban-to-stop-deadly-cattle-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=367743","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria grazing ban to stop deadly cattle wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph--bold\">Nigeria has implemented a controversial ban on cattle grazing they say will bring peace to the area, but opponents have decried as a recipe for anarchy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">The ban, in the south-eastern Benue state, follows years of violent and often deadly clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsman and local farmers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">The herders accuse farmers of killing their cattle while the farmers say the animals are destroying their crops.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">The new law would require everyone to keep their livestock on ranches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">Those breaking the law face the possibility of a five-year jail sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">The Fulani herdsman say it unfairly targets their nomadic way of life, but the Benue state government says its aim is to restore peace, reports the BBC&#8217;s Chris Ewokor from the capital, Abuja.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-crosshead\"><strong>Destruction of communities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">The herders have been forced from their more traditional grazing lands in the north by the Boko Haram insurgency, and the encroaching desert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">It has put them in direct conflict with local farmers, resulting in death and the destruction of entire communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">The Global Terrorism Index says Fulani militants were responsible for almost 1,800 deaths\u00a0during 2014 and 2015, leading to the government ordering a crackdown on the herders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">It considers the herders&#8217; raids as the second-biggest threat to peace in the country after the Islamist Boko Haram militants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-paragraph\">However, the Fulani insist they are only trying to defend themselves and preserve their way of life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"amp-o-crosshead\"><strong>Who are the Fulanis?<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"article-image\">\n<div class=\"article-image__image-copyright-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/695\/cpsprodpb\/08DE\/production\/_89507220_gettyimages-484593461.jpg\" alt=\"A Fulani herdsman carrying a calf on his shoulder in Kano, northern Nigeria.\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"media-caption article-image--has-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><span class=\"media-caption__text\">Nigeria has suffered for years with communal violence, often linked to cattle raiding<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>They are believed to be the largest semi-nomadic group in the world and are found across West and Central Africa &#8211; from Senegal to the Central African Republic<\/li>\n<li>In Nigeria, some continue to live as semi-nomadic herders, while other have moved to cities<\/li>\n<li>Unlike the more integrated city dwellers, the nomadic groups spend most of their lives in the bush and are the ones largely involved in these clashes<\/li>\n<li>They herd their animals across vast areas, frequently clashing with farming communities<\/li>\n<li>They are often linked with another group, the Hausas, having lived together for a very long time. Some refer to the Hausa-Fulanis but they are different groups<\/li>\n<li>The Fulanis played a key role in 19th Century revival of Islam in Nigeria<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria has implemented a controversial ban on cattle grazing they say will bring peace to the area, but opponents have decried as a recipe for anarchy. The ban, in the south-eastern Benue state, follows years of violent and often deadly clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsman and local farmers. The herders accuse farmers of killing their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}