Category Archives: Africa

FTAC: A Comment on South Africa’s Feudal v Modern Dilemma

14 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Politics, South Africa, Zimbabwe

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

A large part of the world remains feudal and no more so than in communist and fascist circles. The truth is modern South Africa has managed to embarrass from office a kleptocrat in the communist style, Jacob Zuma, and have in place very much a successful capitalist and modern personality, Cyril Ramaphosa.

https://citizen.co.za/news/news-eish/1994358/eff-makes-fun-of-cyrils-sad-face-as-he-announces-expropriation-plan/

In some quarters, the political habits and ideas of the past persist in a changed world. We have some here in the U.S. even for whom the white right south is meant to rise again. Apparently, some portion of the black population within the ANC has settled into a bad case of Mugabeitis, an illness too well known in neighboring Zimbabwe and only recently, perhaps, brought under control by a junta plenty tired of the old despot.

My concern: that white and blacks choose not to mirror the worst glimpses of one another and consider forming to fight political regress together.

Despite my idealism and hopes, I know the situation is bad for white property owners and certainly crazy for the criminals marauding them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Ramaphosa

Also in Media

The other argument proposed for why black people can’t be racist, namely that they have no power, is wearing very thin 24 years into our democracy. For one, there are many black people with a lot of power in every sense of the word and a good number of whites with virtually no power of any description.

But as happens often, we’re still borrowing this argument from American political culture where black people are still in the minority.
I have never witnessed a black person cursing white people because he/she believes being black is superior, even where the words used would sometimes suggest that.

“Reverse racism” is thus not racism in the real sense of the word, but it could be described as intolerance, hatred or vengefulness based on race.

Du Preez, Max. “The myth of ‘reverse racism’.” News24, April 3, 2018.

LONDON — If Vicki Momberg had only unleashed a high-volume tirade at the South African police officers, video of it would have been of mere passing interest. But her repeated use of a racial slur — unfamiliar to most Americans, but explosive in South Africa — made her notorious, and led to demands to make her an example.

Perez-Pena, Richard. “Woman Becomes First South African Imprisoned for Racist Speech.” The New York Times, March 28, 2018.

For years, we’ve watched and seen white South Africa’s false solidarity with black people and absence from involvement on issues affecting blacks. White South Africans expect black people to join movements when the issue in question affects white communities yet remain silent, retreating to leafy or non-impoverished suburbs, when blacks face prejudice, lack of economic access or service delivery. In January 2018, residents from the Thembelihle informal settlement, south of Johannesburg, took to the streets in a service delivery protest demanding housing.

The 1994 ideology of “sameness” that was introduced post-apartheid to bring peace to a much-wounded nation has begun to show cracks, a clear indication that this was, for the most part, a one-sided concord dependent on whose privilege matters most.

Kambule, Samantha. “White South Africans Conveniently Ignore Racism.” The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. n.d.

Posted to YouTube March 1, 2018.

Posted to YouTube July 28, 2018.

Posted to YouTube, November 28, 2017.

Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capture ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capture#South_Africa

Related: “If not now, when?” Hillel The Elder (Wikipedia)

He is popularly known as the author of two sayings: (1) “If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am ‘I’? And if not now, when?”[4] and (2) the expression of the ethic of reciprocity, or “Golden Rule“: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”[5]

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/12/09/zoom-zoom-zuma-hail-the-presence-of-another-african-aristocommicrat/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/09/11/ftac-mandela-zuma-perhaps-the-end-of-aristocommiecrats/

–33–

Nigeria: Raids: Fulani Land Pirates

01 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, International Development, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Posted to YouTube June 27, 2018.

The gun men came from the hills, armed with guns and machetes under the cover of an afternoon rain. They split into groups and selected remote areas within walking distances of between 40 and 50 minutes to unleash mayhem on innocent lives.

Before then, they had laid ambush on mourners returning from a funeral service in Kakuruk village and simultaneously raided nearby villages, shooting, stabbing and maiming anyone at sight. Even the youthful and agile were helpless as the scoundrels massacred and soiled the land with tears and blood. Witnesses said the carnage lasted for hours and travellers evacuated their vehicles and fled into the bush.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/inside-plateau-s-latest-killing-fields-258724.html – 6/30/2018

Last weekend 238 Christians were killed in a number of attacks by militia in Plateau State, a region in the heart of the country.

Campaigners are warning it is just the latest example of “pure genocide” in a country ravaged by religious division.

A joint statement issued by the Christian Association of Nigeria said more than 6,000 Christian worshippers – “mostly children, women and the aged” – had already been killed this year.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/981611/christian-persecution-christianity-nigeria – 6/30/2018.

Fulani brigades appear to arrive in numbers great enough to surround their targets and destroy them with automatic weapons and petrol.  For Christian defense: nothing — not weapons, which are confiscated by the government to discourage “vigilante actions”, not terrain, which is rugged but short on natural barriers to foot and vehicle assault, not military or police, who are either spread thin and easily confused or disinterested — and that last has become a point in political contention about the sincerity of Nigerian Muslim President Buhari in relation to his commitment to secure the Christian community in Nigeria.

Nigeria-PlateauState-180701

The blue frown refers to the 200 Nigerian recently killed by Fulani raiders in Plateau State.

United States Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr W. Stuart Symington has enjoined both the Nigerian leaders and citizens to make concerted efforts to stop the killings currently ravaging the country. The ambassador was speaking at ceremonies marking the 242 years of Independence for the United States of America.

Symington speaking on the situation in Nigeria said every day, people’s hopes are stopped by unnecessary deaths and by those whose acts reflect no good and served no cause.

http://www.tribuneonlineng.com/153039/ – 7/1/20128

–33–

“This is Nigeria” | “This is America” | And for Christian Villages and Fulani Land Pirates Alike, “Carrying Capacity” Plus an Interesting Defense Industry Question

04 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, International Development, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria, Political Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Posted to YouTube May 25, 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falz

Posted to YouTube May 5, 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Glover

“Published on May 9, 2018: Infectious in beat, jarring in violence and imagery, Donald Glover’s new music video “This Is America” touches on painful racial history and our contemporary culture of mass entertainment and murder. Jeffrey Brown talks with Rolling Stone contributor Tre Johnson about the video and the ways African-American artists are reflecting the nuanced tensions in how we depict black lives in America.”

What blogger / writer needs to write when compilations are practically ready-made?

Macaulay, Scott.  “Watch: Falz the Bad Guy’s Childish Gambino Riff, This is Nigeria.”  Filmmaker Magazine, June 3, 2018:

Nigerian rapper Falz the Bad Guy, a former lawyer, has released a riff on Childish Gambino’s This is America, in which the song and music video are copied and reworked.

It’s good to know which video arrived first, but I’m not certain that it matters: we’re a wild species often accurately reflected in the poets’ mirrors.  However, seeing ourselves so depicted, we might consider getting ahead of some basic challenges rather than acquiescing to being forever jerked around by them.

Posted to YouTube June 30, 2017

Posted to YouTube January 9, 2018: “Reacting to the incessant killing by Fulani herdsmen across the country, Comrade Mohammed Kudu Abubakar, Deputy National President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately pronounce herdsmen as a terrorist organization.”

 

Ultimate hope: expand old pasturage by reversing desertification where possible and producing ranch land with grazing crops, fenced boundaries, and appropriate agricultural cycling or rotations of cattle if, where, and as possible.  Such armchair suggestions are, of course, easier said than done — and BackChannels, as have many others, have heard the “ranching solution” mentioned elsewhere.  The same, however, needs to be done, and most complicating: cultural habits (for that, refer to Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” —Wikipedia entry; article online).

As regards Christian-Muslim enmity based in the uptick in violence and apparent disinterest of the government in responding to the barbarism — it’s really nothing else — BackChannels may note that both Boko Haram and Fulani violence may be associated with Chinese and Russian — and, most recently, American — defense sales to Nigeria.  Perhaps both faith communities should appreciate Mr. Abubakar’s interest in investigating the path backward to getting AK-47s into Fulani hands.

And if AK-47s, why not later — if a civil war can be set up — MANPADS?  RPGs?  “Technicals”?

How much “low intensity conflict” or “small war” does it take to sell to one state or another how many billions of dollars worth of aircraft or other defense equipment and supporting systems?

It’s a cynical question but possibly one of the most interesting as regards civilizational ambitions and “realpolitik”.

Addendum

http://dailypost.ng/2018/06/05/muslims-give-falz-7-days-withdraw-nigeria-video/ — 6/5/2018.

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has described ‘This is Nigeria’ song by Nigerian Singer, Folarin Falana, AKA, Falz the Bahd Guy, as a ‘hate video and an assault on the self-dignity of every Muslim.’

BackChannels has heard that the effort to intimidate the artist has been rebuked; however, this marks the seventh day out from that threat, so the story may be something to watch in relation to Nigeria’s cultural freedom of expression.

–33–

Nigeria: Circular Control: Death or Surrender — Or Continue

24 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, International Development, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Posted to YouTube May 4, 2016.
Miyetti Allah

In the little more than two years since the above was posted, Fulani-associated attacks on Nigerian farming villages have skyrocketed, bringing to play suspicions about a Muslim dominated government and security apparatus.  One BackChannels source has suggested that all the top military and police officers have Arab names and Islamic affiliation, and, therefore, so may go the reasoning, the same have turned a blind eye to attacks in the making.  Add to that, the state’s confiscation of old unregistered firearms from villagers, leaving the same completely bared to the whims of AK-47 equipped rape-and-rapine “Fulani Land Pirates”.

Not surprisingly, the complaint of Islamic Jihad and the ethnic cleansing of Christians has surfaced in more recent news.

Governor Ortom in his speech, stated that what was happening in the state was ethnic cleansing and Jihad. Ortom said, “this is not a hidden agenda, it’s known and those people who are perpetrating it did say it. They’re not hidden. They held press conferences, they came out and said they were going to resist our law, that they were going to do ethnic cleansing, it’s about Jihad, it’s about taking over the land, it’s not about herders and farmers clashes.

Duru, Peter.  “Seek int’l help to end killings in Benue, Nigeria — Professor
Wole Soyinka.”  Vanguard, May 24, 2018.

Related in Vanguard on this day: an editorial critical of “The probe on Army ‘partiality'”; and another, finally, on the shooting of armed herdsman in the “Gwer, Logo and Guma Local Government Areas of Benue State” — and in use: Russian Mi-35 helicopter gunships.

BackChannels has been curious about where “the bandits” have been obtaining their arms — and the mention of such curiosity alone should raise knowing and cynical smiles in West Africa: “Firearms Trafficking in West Africa” n.d., PDF.

The Boko Haram back story in relation to arms and equipage has been poked at:

Campbell, John.  “Nigeria’s Boko Haram and Heavy Weapons.”  Council on Foreign Relations, 2014.

However, the “tank” in the photo appears to be a Panhard ERC-90 Sagaie, a wheeled armored fighting vehicle of French manufacture. Chad and Cote d’Voire each have a few of these vehicles, and, according to one commentator, the Nigerian military has forty-two of them. If that is accurate, then it is likely that the tank and the armored fighting vehicle were stolen from a Nigerian military armory and did not come from Libya.

Reuters Staff.  “Military graft undermines Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram: Transparency International.”  Reuters, May 17, 2017.

At least one arms shipment originating in Turkey has been interdicted; there appears at least one report of bandits armed to military standards:

Last year the police carried out a dawn raid on Orilowo-Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, and arrested three men after seizing a cache of arms that was sufficient to outfit a 20-man army. In another incident last year, at the border town of Seme, bandits overwhelmed the huge security presence at the border post, laid in wait for traders and robbed them. Many lives were lost. As an officer testified after the incident, it wasn’t the effrontery of the robbers that unnerved him and his colleagues, but the sophistication
of the arms they used.

Ojudu, Babafemi.  “Gun Smuggling in the Niger Delta.”  World Press Review, n.d.

However acquired — and whatever the true (cultural, communal, economic, personal religious, social, tribal) motivations of Boko Haram or Fulani Land Pirates — the violence targeting the state’s peaceful (and disarmed) Christian communities has brought into view the possibilities for deep mistrust across the Christian-Muslim discriminator and forced the state to defend its integrity with greater military power, skill, and resolve, which, of course, requires heightened military spending.

Distilled: violent rogue organizations promote defense spending, i.e., they’re good for business!

Affected states, perhaps especially today Nigeria, have no choice but to heighten integrity in their ranks and push back or, over time, disintegrate down into feudal squabbles that might presage — for lack of decency in governance — meltdown into the modern dark ages of failed states.

At the same time, BackChannels fears the Orwellian possibility of state-based manipulation of bandits, jihadists, and raiders in the producing the sustained chaos and conflict profitable to two kinds of markets: 1) the black markets known to “failed states” and “frozen conflicts” in which authorities have been so compromised, corrupted, or otherwise weakened (absented in force) that anything goes and EVERYTHING illicit moves through the territory; and 2) the state-to-state business markets invested in defense economies nurtured for expansion.

Appreciate the contemplation: the truth really is Out There where ships stop in the night far out at sea and hours later smuggled arms move across the land toward the money that makes it all seem worthwhile.

What will happen if the seemingly limitless tide of young men recruited in the wild become supplied with shoulder-launched rockets?

Someone’s business will grow.

Related to Nigeria’s acquisition of A29 Aircraft

Aziken, Emmanuel.  “Cost of A29 aircraft: Ask Nigerian govt — US Mission.”  Vanguard, May 8, 2018.

Akinwotu, Emmanuel and Aurelien Breeden.  “‘Shocked’ by Attack on Mosque, Nigeria Tightens Security in Northeast.”  The New York Times, May 2, 2018.

–33–

From October 2017: Emir of Kano Lamido Sanusi II, Nigeria, on Economic Disparity

12 Saturday May 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Also in Media, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, foreign aid, International Development, Nigeria, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Amen!

Conversation welcomed.

–33–

FTAC: Nigeria: Boko Haram Convert-or-Die; Fulani Land Pirates Devouring Nigeria’s Christian Margin; Lost Confidence in Governance and Security

24 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Of the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped in Dapchi in February, 104 were released by the Boko Haram, five died during the kidnap while one remains with the terrorists for allegedly refusing to put on a hijab and renounce her Christian faith.

Haruna, Abdulkareem.  “#Dapchi Girls: We feel betrayed by Nigerian govt, father of killed schoolgirl speaks.”  Premium Times, March 24, 2018.

Her name: Aisha Adamu.

Her killers wear masks and appear to have no names.

From The Awesome Conversation —

The Ummah of Islam has bloody edges, and the Christian community of Nigeria appears to be an edge. The “Fulani Land Pirates” — that’s what I’m calling them — are nibbling away Nigerian Christian territory with rape and rapine, and the Christian community disarmed by the state is become “internally displaced”, currently by about 200,000 souls in relation to the Land Pirates, about 2 million in relation to Boko Haram, who have got a kind of game going: abduct, convert or kill, and return the sworn converts to their parents.

There are multiple levels in these conflicts — locally, Boko Haram is a scourge; however, the arms are Kalashnikov, generally speaking; we know today that Moscow arms and backs the Taliban in Afghanistan; we know that the same defends politically absolute systems, AKA “dictatorships”, and we know that the sponsors in the surrounds of these fighting elements, emir, general this or that, fit that description.

My call: it’s not overpopulation or too much imagination that drive the Islamic Small Wars, although that would be true for producing recruits for war parties: Nigeria provides dual images — the assaults of the Fulani Land Pirates in one part, the barbarism practiced by Boko Haram in the other —  of the Islamist program of conquest “by the sword” in action.

Whatever reassurances and sweet words may come from the “leadership” may appear more and more as cover.

The marauders keep getting away — and refreshed with arms and funding keep returning too.

Posted to YouTube on February 26, 2018 — before the return of most of the schoolgirls: ” . . . and just asking how could our daughters be left unprotected to be taken again . . .?

Related Reference

Bakare, Tonye.  “Dapchi girls kidnap staged by Buhari’s government, PDP says.”  The Guardian: Nigeria, March 21, 2018.

CNN.  “Inside Nigeria’s internal displacement camps”.  Africa View, January 11, 2017.

Correspondents.  ” . . . we feel betrayed by FB, says father of dead girl.”  New Telegraph, March 24, 2018.

Speaking in tears, the middle-aged resident of Jumbam, a village 2km away from Dapchi, said rather than the Nigerian soldiers combating the insurgents after they came back to drop the girls, the soldiers simply “watched with folded arms while the insurgents left triumphantly.”

The resident spoken was the father of Aisha Adamu, Adamu Jumbam.

Egeland, Jan.  “Forcing displaced Nigerians may worsen crises.”  Op-ed.  Norwegian Refugee Center, October 12, 2017.

Gaffey, Conor.  “Why Are Over 1 Million Displaced Persons in Nigeria Too Scared to Go Home?”  Newsweek, October 12, 2017.

The report involved 3,455 household surveys and 46 focus group discussions across 12 local government areas in Borno State. Most of the IDPs surveyed expressed fears about security as their main reasons for not wanting to return home.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed on several occasions that Boko Haram—which has fractured into at least two major factions—was no longer a fighting force in Nigeria. But the militants have continued to launch attacks and have been solely responsible for some 700 deaths so far in 2017, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.  “Nigeria IDP Figures Analysis — As of December 31, 2015 —

IDMC estimates that there are almost 2,152,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria as of 31 December 2015 . . . .

Of the total figure of IDPs, the assessment indicates that 12.6 per cent were displaced due to communal clashes, 2.4 per cent by natural disasters and 85 per cent as a result of insurgency attacks by Islamists. The decrease in the percentage of IDPs who were displaced by insurgency from 95.3 per cent in August to 85 per cent in December 2015 and the increase in the numbers of those displaced by communal clashes from 4.6 per cent to 10.1 per cent in October were due to the inclusion of five additional States witnessing communal violence more than insurgency by Islamist groups.

Obiejesi, Kingsley.  “Her dream was to become a scientist, says father of late Dapchi girl.”  ICIR Nigeria, March 23, 2018.

Relief Web.  “Internal Displacement in North East Nigeria: Operationalising the Kampala Convention in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.”  December 31, 2016.

Sahara Reporters.  “UPDATED: Nigerian Govt Lied, 5 Million Euros, Boko Haram Fighters, Swapped for Dapchi Girls.” March 21, 2018.

But a source who also participated in the negotiations with Boko Haram that led to release of over 80 Chibok girls in 2017 told SaharaReporters that the federal government not only made the ransom payment of five million euros to the insurgents, it also exchanged some Boko Haram prisoners in return for the Dapchi girls.

However, the lie that no ransom was paid to secure the return of the Dapchi girls followed a consistent pattern of such under the table millions of dollars payments by the Nigerian government to Boko Haram to secure freedom of abductees, especially since the advent of the Buhari administration.

Addendum – More From the Awesome Conversation

Moscow’s hidden hand may be behind both conflicts — Boko Haram and the Fulani Land Pirates — for the still medieval Russian state appears to promote “political absolutism” — the power of the tyrant to destroy both property and persons with impunity — worldwide. In such systems, the state exists to serve the Great Leader who may hold his position beneath a banner and program essentially swallowed by the public. As regards dictatorships, one may say: “Different Talks — Same Walk!” Always.

–33–

Nigeria: ‘Fulani’ Herdsman, Razed Villages, Arms Running, Hezbollah, Even Turkish Diplomats –>

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

BackChannels source this morning relayed the following from Lagos, Nigeria in relation to raids by apparent herdsman against largely disarmed villages.

  • Since the first of the years, source claims, more than 500 Nigerians have been slaughtered in raids and no arrests have been made;
  • The number of Internally Displaced Persons associated with the conflict exceeds 200,000;
  • The Nigerian government has been repossessing simple weapons from villagers while attackers typically carrying AK-47s surround their targets and destroy buildings and stores with burning petrol;
  • The complement attending raids may average about 100 or more fighters;
  • Source of arms: Libya, other Arab nations, and Turkey.

In 2013, news reports mentioned a Hezbollah cell and weapons cache in Nigeria; the latest weapons seizure of similar scale in 2017 appears to have originated through Turkish channels.

Although Fulani herdsman have been blamed en masse for the aggression noted, BackChannels has heard suggestion that the weaponizing may devolve to the same forces backing extremist organizations elsewhere.  The 2013 Hezbollah connection and the more recent 2017 interdiction involving Turkey would appear to support that thesis.

Recruitment into raiding units would also appear to correspond to conditions channeling fighters into rogue organizations elsewhere.

Dr. Omolade Adunbi, Assistant Professor, Political Anthropology, University of Michigan noted the following earlier this year in the publication Africa is a Country:  “The question then becomes, how are these insurgents with no clarity of purpose able to recruit members into their dysfunctional group? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. First, the effect of climate change on the rise of social inequality in many parts of the country has meant the increased susceptibility of socially vulnerable groups to recruitment.”

Related on YouTube

Posted to YouTube 3/28/2014

Posted to YouTube 1/11/2018

Posted to YouTube 8/2/2016

BackChannels can never “vet” these videos, but most recognize this conflict in Nigeria as involving cattlemen, basically, and farmers.  Less played may be the role played by religion in the conflict, which here has been made apparent:

Posted to YouTube 1/16/2018

Considering the 2013 Hezbollah weapons cache story, the latest interdiction of arms involving Turkish (criminal, of course) channeling, the claim of arms coming from Libya and more recent participation associated with Turkey and the activities of Moscow and Tehran in manipulating conflicts and extremism into existence (listen to the BBC interview of a once Soviet admiral on the Ogaden War), the drivers of this latest tragedy in Nigeria may start to surface.

Reference

Abiodun, Eromosele.  “Turkish Govt to Deal with Collaborators of Arms Shipment to Nigeria.”  This Day Live, September 27, 2017.  Denial —

The Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Hakan Cakil, in a meeting with the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), over importation of four containers of pump-action rifles into Nigeria in last eight months vowed to help Nigeria fish out criminals behind the illegal arms shipment to Nigeria.

Adunbi, Omolade.  “How did Fulani herdsmen become such bogeymen in Nigeria?”  Africa Is A Country, February 1, 2018 —

The question then becomes, how are these insurgents with no clarity of purpose able to recruit members into their dysfunctional group? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. First, the effect of climate change on the rise of social inequality in many parts of the country has meant the increased susceptibility of socially vulnerable groups to recruitment . . . .

Amnesty International: Nigeria 2017/2018.

Amnesty International.  “Nigeria: Dozens killed as military launches air attacks on villages beset by spiralling communal violence.”  January 30, 2018 —

On 4 December 2017, Nigeria’s air force sent fighter jets to fire rockets at villages as a “warning” to deter spiralling communal violence, as hundreds of herdsmen attacked at least five villages in Adamawa state to avenge the massacre of up to 51 members of their community, mostly children, the previous month in Kikan.

An Amnesty International team visited the villages in the aftermath of the air raids and gathered witness testimony from residents who described being attacked by a fighter jet and a military helicopter as they attempted to flee.

BBC News.  “Nigeria: Hezbollah armoury discovered in Kano city.”  May 30, 2013 —

The cache, including rifles, anti-tank weapons and an RPG, were found in a warehouse in the city of Kano, he said.

Nigeria’s State Security Service said they were intended for use against “Israeli and Western interests”.

BBC News.  “Nigeria: How Customs seize 1,100 guns for port.”  September 11, 2017.

BBC News.  “Nigeria’s Benue clashes: Mass burial after farmer-Fulani clashes.”  January 11, 2018 —

Mr Onoja, who was at the funeral, said 73 people were being buried.

He defended his state’s controversial ban on open cattle grazing implemented in November, which Fulani herders have complained targets them unfairly.

“Our economy in Benue State depends on agriculture,” he said. “Take that away and we have a serious problem.”

Come to Nigeria.  “Hausa and Fulani People”.

Eboh, Camillus.  “Nigeria says arrests Iran-linked cell targeting U.S., Israel.”  Reuters, February 21, 2013.

(Reuters) – Nigeria’s secret service say they have arrested a “terrorist cell” trained in Iran who planned to attack U.S. and Israeli targets in Africa’s most populous nation.

The State Security Service (SSS) said they arrested Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and two other Nigerians in December after Berende made several suspicious trips to Iran where he interacted with Iranians in a “high profile terrorist network”.

Inyang, Ifreke.  “No one can defeat us in Nigeria — Fulani national leader, Bello boasts.”  Daily Post, January 29, 2018.

The National Chairman of Fulbe (Fulani) Development Association of Nigeria (FULDAN), Malam Ahmad Usman Bello, has declared that they cannot be defeated by any ethnic group in the country.

Bello made the remarks while speaking with Saturday Tribune in Kano, amid the widespread outcry against the murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen in Benue, Plateau and Taraba states and many other parts of the country.

Sahara Reporters.  “470 Guns Seized at Lagos Port.”  September 22, 2017.

The federal government is set to meet Turkish diplomats today over the spate of illegal importation of rifles from Turkey to Nigeria.

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Comptroller-General (CG) Col. Hameed Ali (retd) said this when he briefed reporters over the seizure of another 470 rifles at Tin-Can Island port in Lagos.

Sahara Reporters.  “Amnesty International Brands Nigeria’s Response To Fulani Herdsmen Violence Inadequate, Reveals 717 Killed In Less Than 2 Years.”  January 29 2018.

The body also said communal clashes have claimed over 700 lives since last year. AI made its position known in a statement issued on Monday. It stated that clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna states have resulted in 168 deaths in January alone.

Sahara Reporters.  “Fulani Herdsmen Kill 4 Soldiers in Garrison Commander’s Convey, Injure Scores in Plateau.”  March 17, 2018.

–33–

 

Fulani Herdsman Rampage Through Dundu Village, Kwall District, Bassa, Plateau State, Nigeria

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Journalism, Nigeria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

BackChannels’ source has reported nineteen men, three women, and three children killed by Fulani herdsman Monday night (March 12, 2018) in Dundu Village, Kwall District, Bassa Governate, Plateu State, Nigeria.  The attack follows by three days the burning of 50 homes and the killing of two children, twins, and 9 adults  in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.

Source claims Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari “has been paying lip service to the atrocities committed by Fulani terrorists.”

President Buhari has urged patience on the part of the Nigerian public:

Nigeria’s issues with the nomadic Fulani, pressured by drought and motivated some by Islamic supremacist egotism, has been a developing conflict issue in Nigeria for some time.  Herewith a smattering of related reports and news news reports and fair use excerpts from them.

Fast Reference

All excerpts are partial (there’s more to be read at the source) and dated either in the address line or short after the URL.

https://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/fulani-herdsmen-nigeria – 2014

Fulani herdsmen and farmers conflict in Nigeria is a land resource based conflict in north-eastern Nigeria. According to a Human Rights Watch report of December 2013 violence between Fulani herdsmen, farmers and local communities had killed 3,000 people since 2010.

http://dailypost.ng/2018/01/11/declare-fulani-herdsmen-terrorists-now-southern-middle-belt-leaders-charge-buhari/

Attributed to Chief Adebanjo:

On herdsmen, Adebanjo said he had no trust on the ability of the police to quell the activities of the group as the police hierarchy had already described the killings as communal clashes.

He further lambasted President Buhari over his handling of the killings, stressing that “even when someone in the caliber of Falae was kidnapped, he didn’t utter a word. He has also refused to identify Fulani herdsmen as terrorists.

http://punchng.com/herdsmen-kill-11-torch-50-houses-in-plateau/ – 3/10/2018

President Muhammadu Buhari had barely left Plateau State when the attacks were launched on Ganda village of Daffo District in Bokkos Local Government Area and Miango village in Bassa Local Government Area. The communities were attacked few hours after the inauguration of Plateau State Peace Building Agency by the President, who was in Jos, the state capital, on a working visit.

https://newtelegraphonline.com/2018/03/herdsmen-kill-25-raze-houses-plateau/

He said: “Twenty-five people lost their lives in a fresh attack on Dundu village of Kwall District of Bassa Local Government Area. The incident occurred just as the Irigwe community had planned a mass burial for four of the five earlier killed in a similar attack on Nzhauvo village.

“When we reacted to a claim by the Miyetti Allah group in January of missing cattle, we told you it was a ploy to justify another round of killings. True to this, the Fulani militia, which the Federal Government has refused to brand a terrorist organisation to the dismay of Nigerians, have continued to visit our villages with orchestrated and unwarranted carnage.

https://naijanewsandevents.com/fulani-herdsmen-attack-dundu-village-in-plateau-kill-25/ – 3/14/2018

Daily Sun gathered that the attack, which occurred at about 7pm, left several houses burnt and scores injured.

It was learnt that the attackers took the villagers unawares when they were preparing to take their dinner and the entire village was enveloped by gunfire from the attackers, leaving children, women and the aged scampering for safety.

A youth leader, Lawrence Timothy, said 25 corpses have been found, while more were still being recovered from the bush

http://punchng.com/herdsmen-kill-26-torch-11-houses-in-fresh-plateau-attacks/ – 3/14/2018

Attributed to Lawrence Zongo, spokesman, Miango Youth Development Association:

“Others, including two women are now receiving treatment in a nearby hospital in the community. One girl later died in the hospital, making it 26 victims. This is too bad as we are planning for a mass burial of the last attack. So far, we have more than 500 in Internally Displaced Persons camp. The international organisations should please come to our aid.”

gtd-fulani-chart

Source and Search:

http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?search=Fulani&sa.x=38&sa.y=9&sa=Search

Notice the spike on the chart from 2010 into 2016.

START.  “Annex of Statistical Information: Country Reports on Terrorism 2016.”  Page 12.  National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.  July 2017.

Information about perpetrator groups was reported for 77% of terrorist attacks in Nigeria in 2016.  Due to a 63% decrease in the number of attacks carried out by Boko Haram and a 62% increase in the number of attacks carried out by Fulani militants, Fulani militants were responsible for the most terrorist attacks in Nigeria in 2016.

https://jamestown.org/program/alleged-connection-between-boko-haram-and-nigerias-fulani-herdsmen-could-spark-a-nigerian-civil-war/ – March 16, 2014.

In recent weeks, Nigerian security forces have claimed that some groups of semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen engaged in bitter and bloody conflicts with farmers in several Nigerian states are actually composed of members of Boko Haram. A statement from Nigerian Director of Defense Information Major General Chris Olukolade claimed the potentially dangerous identification came during the interrogation of Fulani herdsmen arrested after a series of killings and arson attacks in Taraba State (Vanguard [Lagos], April 23; Leadership [Abuja], April 24; Nigerian Tribune, April 24). Reports of Boko Haram members (who are mostly members of the Kanuri ethno-cultural group) disguising themselves as Fulani herdsmen while carrying out attacks in rural Nigeria are common. Though many of these reports may be attempts to deflect responsibility from Fulani herders for attacks on sedentary farming communities throughout north and central Nigeria, even the perception that the Fulani herdsmen have joined forces with Boko Haram could propel Nigeria into a new and devastating civil war.

Note: because Russia has been cited as arming the Taliban in Afghanistan in its war against liberal and democratic modernity in that state, BackChannels may suggest searching for similar connection in the “handling” of both Boko Haram and the portion of Fulani Herdsmen engaged in creating chaos, dispossession, and ruin in Nigeria.

It should be evident worldwide that Soviet / post-Soviet Moscow works to weaken states: Syria has been half destroyed in association with Moscow, Crimea invaded and today badgered daily by related military and terrorist-type elements, and so one may ask — or must ask — where else?  And for whose benefit?

For more immediate Nigerian and practical realpolitik, the response to Fulani “softening” for incursion may turn out the state’s army and armed local militia.

–33–