US embassy cable - 02ABUJA14

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000014 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/02/2012 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, SOCI, CASC, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: COMMUNAL VIOLENCE IN PLATEAU STATE 
 
 
REF: 01 ABUJA 2255 
 
 
Classified by CDA Andrews for reason 1.5 (d.) 
 
 
1. (U)  Summary: December 30-31 communal violence in Plateau 
State has resulted in numerous deaths and scattered property 
damage.  Death estimates range between 33 and 90 people.  The 
proximate cause of the encounters was the perennial 
competition over land between cattle herders (mostly 
Hausa/Fulani) and farmers (ethnic Biroms.)  The fighting 
occurred near Vom, approximately 10 miles south of the state 
capital, Jos, and did not approach Jos.  The military has 
been deployed and the Vom area is quiet.  Consular wardens 
report that Jos is also calm and that no Amcits were caught 
in the melee.  End summary. 
 
 
2. (U)  According to a statement issued by the Plateau State 
Government and carried by the local press, the violence 
erupted when forty armed men attacked the home of the 
district head of Vwang district in the Jos South Local 
Government Area during the early morning hours of December 
30.  Eighteen people reportedly were killed, including eight 
attackers who were shot after being pursued by a joint 
army-police security task force.  (Comment: Press reports 
referred to the culprits as "foreign bandits."  That these 
raiders were non-Nigerians who crossed an international 
border to carry out this attack seems unlikely.  More 
plausible is that the press picked up on the local usage of 
"foreign," which would imply the attackers were Hausa/Fulani 
or some other ethnic group not considered "indigenous" to the 
area.  The other major ethnic groups in the Jos vicinity 
pejoratively consider Hausa/Fulani as alien to the area 
although they have resided there since the 19th century and 
were the cardinal force behind the founding of Jos in the 
early 1900's.  End comment.) 
 
 
3. (SBU)  That the Birom attributed the December 30 attack to 
the Hausa/Fulani soon became evident.  Later in the day, 
reprisal attacks were carried out against Hausa/Fulani 
resident in the Vwang district.  Some of these attacks may 
have continued until December 31. Death estimates from the 
reprisals range from 15 to 70.  (The higher figure comes from 
Dutch expatriates working in the vicinity.) The news of the 
original attacks and the reprisals spread quickly, causing 
many Plateau State inhabitants to fear a replay of the early 
September violence that claimed over 2,000 lives in Jos. 
Several hundreds, mostly of Hausa/Fulani apparently sought 
refuge from the feared escalation at the 3rd armored Division 
barracks in Rukuba.  Also many merchants in Jos hurriedly 
closed shop or refused to open on hearing of the clashes, 
according to Colonel Mohammed Inra Idris, Special Assistant 
to National Security Advisor Aliyu Mohammed. 
 
 
4. (SBU)  Idris discounted any direct connection between the 
December 30-31 flare ups and the earlier September violence. 
Instead, this latter episode seemed very localized, confined 
to the district around Vom.  Professor John Elaigwu at the 
Institute of Governance and Social Responsibility at the 
University of Jos also concurred with this assessment. 
Elaigwu, who served as Director General of the 
Inter-governmental Institute on Conflict Resolution during 
the Abacha years, stated that the violence was the product of 
perennial dispute over land usage between cattle herders and 
farmers.  Particularly during the dry season, fertile land is 
at a premium.  Competition between those who seek the land 
for grazing and those who want it for cultivation is 
heightened. In this case, the pressure gradually built until 
reaching a point where it had to be vented.  Religion crept 
into the equation as at most a secondary consideration. 
Herders tend to be Hausa/Fulani Muslims while the farmers are 
ethnic Birom and Anguta, who are mainly Christian. 
 
 
----------------------- 
Return To Calm, For Now 
----------------------- 
 
 
5. (U)  Security forces and the Plateau State Government seem 
to have reacted swiftly to contain the violence. 
Approximately 150 soldiers and policemen have been deployed 
to the troubled area.  The State Government has also 
tightened the midnight curfew established after the September 
eruption. 
 
 
6. (U)  Amcit wardens report the American Community is well 
but note concerns among their Nigerian acquaintances that 
further violence could erupt if forces relax their vigilance 
or reduce their presence 
 
 
7. (C)  Comment: the temptation to draw a causal link between 
the September Jos violence and what just happened in Vom is 
understandable.  While a few observers have attempted this 
nexus, the weight of evidence suggests no direct connection 
between the two episodes.  The December 30-31 violence 
appears the result of chronic land use competition that 
unfortunately went from bad to worse for many of the area's 
inhabitants.  Yet, given the high anxiety and residual 
tension in Plateau State as a result of the September 
trouble, authorities are concerned that violence of any sort 
can spread and take on larger dimensions.  For now, it 
appears that the authorities halted this potential dynamic 
before it could expand and  assume a more minatory ethnic or 
religious coloration.  End comment. 
Andrews