US embassy cable - 01ABUJA1448

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001448 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2011 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, PINS, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: ETHNIC CLASHES IN NASARAWA STATE: 
CONFLICT OVER LAND AND COMMUNITY STATUS 
 
 
Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter, reason 1.5 (B/D). 
 
 
1.  (U) Summary.  Ethnic clashes in the Middle-Belt State of 
Nasarawa highlight long-standing and bitter disputes over 
land and community status.  "Settlers" and indigenes trade 
reprisal raids, burning homes, seizing property, and taking 
lives.  The State Government struggles to effect dialogue 
between the affected communities,  and relative peace appears 
to have been re-established after security forces intervened. 
End summary. 
 
 
2.  (U) Local press reported June 22 violent clashes between 
rival ethnic groups in the south-east corner of Nasarawa 
State, a Middle-Belt State located immediately to the east of 
the Federal Capital Territory.  One report listed 10 killed 
in clashes near the town of Azara over the past few days 
between ethnic Tiv communities and Hausa-speaking 
inhabitants.  Poloff spoke by telephone with Nasarawa Deputy 
Governor Onje Gye-Wado June 22, and received an update on the 
conflict and the State Government's efforts to calm the 
situation. 
 
 
3.  (C) Gye-Wado told Poloff that, in an area long unsettled 
by tensions between rival ethnic groups in the south-eastern 
corner of the state, the latest round of attacks and 
reprisals began in March with the murder of a Kwala community 
leader.  Gye-Wado spoke of a four-way contest between the 
Tiv, the Kwala, Hausa-speaking peoples originally from Borno 
State (located to the north), and Jukun communities.  The 
Deputy Governor had no exact figures at hand, but he said 
that "quite a few" people had lost their lives over the last 
three months in repeated raids by the four groups on each 
other's communities, the burning of homes, and looting of 
property.  The root causes of the conflict were access to 
land, and the relative status of the various communities 
vis-a-vis the others.  "It is a very tricky situation," said 
Gye-Wado.  "Everyone is always talking of "settlers," and how 
they must leave the area."  Each ethnic group (aside from the 
Hausa-speakers) made some claim to being indigenes, with the 
others categorized as interlopers (and hence of low status). 
Many people had fled the area in the past two weeks, he said, 
in particular Tiv peoples crossing into Benue State to the 
south (which is a majority Tiv state). 
 
 
4.  (C) Gye-Dado said that violence sprang up again last week 
after the murder of a community leader among the 
Hausa-speakers.  In one unfortunate incident this week, he 
said, six rioters were killed by police, with one policeman 
killed in the melee. Beefed-up security forces had basically 
restored order, he said, but beyond the immediate 
intervention of security forces, his government had spent 
much time and effort on consultative measures with and among 
the four communities.  The Nasarawa Government had also 
worked intensively with the Benue Government to discuss 
lessening of tensions and joint security meansures, he said. 
These efforts had borne fruit, and, for now, at least, a 
relative calm had returned to the area.  People had begun to 
return to their homes.  Although he offered no predictions, 
the Deputy Governor said he hoped that dialogue and 
consultation would prevail, and the rounds of reprisal 
attacks cease. 
 
 
5.  (C) Comment.  Bitter disputes over land and community 
status bedevil many States in Nigeria.  Tiv, Jukun, Kwala and 
Hausa-speakers live intermingled in this section of Nasarawa 
State and disputes tend to fester for months if not years. 
The Nawarawa Government appears to understand the importance 
of dialogue and consultation.  But localized disputes such as 
this will continue among impoverished communities where land 
and status are acutely coveted and jealously guarded.  End 
Comment. 
Jeter