Although the uprooting of Christians from their lands has historically been an issue for Nigeria’s northern states, a fresh report by the Catholic –inspired NGO – the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety – has revealed Jihadist Fulani herdsmen are now overrunning Christian communities in the country’s South East.
The report indicates that jihadist-Fulani herdsmen and allied others now occupy at least 950 locations in Nigeria’s largely Christian South Eastern states of Abia, Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi.
“All the strategic locations in Igbo Land have been saturated by Fulani herdsmen with the aid of the Nigerian military,” said Nigeria’s leading criminologist and head of Intersociety, Emeka Umeagbalasi.
He said the jihadist herdsmen use these locations to kidnap, disappear and even kill people, mostly Christians.
The research by the leading research and investigative advocacy group revealed that the 950 locations are spread in over 800 communities in the region, saying that about 40 percent of the entire 1,940 communities in the zone are gravely suffering under bandits and herdsmen threats.
“By our research and investigative findings, South-East is presently dotted with 1,940 Igbo trado- judeo Christian communities involving Abia State 771, Imo 700, Enugu 190, Anambra State 183 and Ebonyi State 96; all compressed in 29, 525 square kilometers of landmass,” the report states.
It noted that as of 2015, the region was home to about ten Jihadist Fulani locations. By August 2019, the jihadists were already occupying 139 locations.
“The number of Jihadist Herdsmen locations increased to 350 by the first quarter of 2020 and doubled, alarmingly, to 700 by April 2021 including locations found in Igbo parts of Delta, Edo, Kogi, Benue, Nasarawa, Rivers and Cross River States,” the report states.
The report notes that Igbo communal lands, forests, farm settlements as well as forests for ancient deities and oracles have been ceded, procured or simply forcibly occupied by the Fulanis, who use them as hideouts for their operations.
And the operations which usually take place at night are largely known to the security forces, the report alleges.
“It was also found that the greater number of non-sedentary natives of the affected communities especially those in the Diaspora are rarely aware that their ancestral forests or bushes or farm settlements have been compromised, procured or ceded and handed over to the patrons of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others for swift establishment of jihadist settlements in such procured or ceded locations, preceded by alleged secret allocation of Certificates-of-Occupancy by ministries of lands and survey of the State Governments involved or in charge. It was further alleged that once the above is done, secret linking of the affected location to Northern Islamic Sultanate follows and a new Fulani leader (Emir) secretly designated, turbaned and placed in charge,” the document says.
The report blames some traditional authorities as well as government officials for conspiracy in the continued acquisition of land by jihadists.
“Some of them [the Fulanis] came to occupy the areas through the involvement and conspiracy of community leaders and state governments that promptly issued them with certificates of occupancy with the alleged promises of “electoral victory and post-election court victory,” it states.
“It is also our finding and information that all the governors in the zone are involved in the conspiracy in aiding them to have access to the land,” said Umeagbalasi.
“This is widely believed to be the reason they don’t speak out or rise in strong condemnation of the genocidal jihadist activities of the Fulani herdsmen,” he added. “They have also bluntly refused and failed to act or take action as Chief Security Officers of their respective States.”
An earlier report by Intersociety revealed that over 20,300 Christians had been killed in Nigeria’s South East since 2015 – the killings carried out by Jihadist Fulani herdsmen, the Niger Delta jihadist militants, and the Jihadist Fulani bandits, the Fulani Muslim vigilantes as well as the Nigerian military deployed to the region.
“It is so saddening that no day passes without recorded deaths of innocent people who are being killed just because they are Christians,” Umeagbalasi told Crux.
He said while the “butcheries” of Christians continue unabated, the security forces tend to look away. Instead, the security of Fulani cattle has become more important, because the butchers of Christians “get state protection round the clock to the extent that the safety and security of their livestock are valued far more than those of members of the human family.”
“It is unfortunate,” he remarked.
The head of Intersociety blasted not only various government operatives for their apparent complicity, but he also criticized the country’s Catholic bishops whom he said had “cocooned themselves to the graveyard of silence.”
Nigeria has since 2009 been plagued by jihadist violence, with the advent of the Boko Haram insurgency that seeks to establish a caliphate across the Sahel. It has since seen other partner terrorist organizations emerge, including the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP and Jihadist Fulani herdsmen.