Tag: Berom

Mass graves litter Berom communities in Plateau State, owing to incessant attacks spanning over 10 years. Why do the attacks persist? asks YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU reports

Even as new governments were sworn in at the weekend, gunmen were killing in a Berom community in Plateau State. The attacks were not new; they have lasted over a decade, leaving loud wailing across the ethnic group.

The attackers often swooped on their victims in the dead of night, wiping out large numbers of the residents, mostly women and children.

In the latest attack in Shonong community, Riyom Local Government Area, left hundreds of houses in ruins, while their occupants fled.

In the last one month, over 60 people have been killed in such attacks in Barkin Ladi and Riyom local governments.

Mr. Samson Tsok, the President of Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM) said at a briefing in Jos, the state capital:

“[A] total of two hundred and two (202) human lives mostly women and children have been lost between October 5th, 2014 and May 24th, 2015”.

When the attacks were becoming too frequent, the state government imposed a curfew on the affected local governments. The movement restriction was effective from 10pm to 5am. But three days after, the gunmen changed tactics and started attacking in broad daylight.

Who are the attackers?

Security agents say they are unknown. But the victims say they are Fulani herdsmen.

But why do they attack at all?

The cattle breeders say they are forced to attack in revenge for the theft of their beloved animals.

There is a heavy presence of Fulani cattle breeders in Riyom and Barkin Ladi local governments. Both local governments have three districts each; in each of these districts, the Fulani are dominant in one, while Fulani herdsmen are also found in  the backyard of the other two districts in both local governments.

There are other itinerant Fulani who walk the international grazing route passing through Berom communities. The grazing route is now a subject of controversy before the National Assembly. The cattle breeders are claiming rights on grazing routes while the Berom people assert that their farmland cannot be reserved as grazing routes.

Besides the claims and counter-claims over grazing routes, the Fulani and Berom have coexisted for almost a century. However, in the last one decade, they have become cats and dogs.

Cattle breeding and livestock keeping, especially cow grazing, have been the traditional business of the Fulani ethnic group. But as they coexisted, they established a symbiotic relationship, with the Berom even handing over their children to the Fulani to be trained in the techniques of grazing. The Fulani lived mostly in the bush which is often far away from schools, which is why they also sent their children to schools in Berom communities.

In those good old days, former Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda, a Fulani, grew up in the hands of a Berom man in Barkin Ladi. Yuguda once said, “When my father was relocating from Jos to Bauchi and I was in school, my father left me in Barkin Ladi in the hand of a Berom man. Under the custody of a Berom man, Yuguda had both his primary and secondary education at Barkin Ladi before joining his father in Bauchi.

Things have changed. Now the Berom and Fulani are sworn enemies. Today, it is either the Berom people are attacking their Fulani neighbours or the Fulani are attacking the Berom. Their frosty relationship got to a level where both of them went as far as seeking mercenaries to attack the other.

But central to the recent attacks is the issue of cattle rustling, a criminal activity that has prevailed in some parts of Plateau State in the last five years. The economic situation in Berom land is such that both ethnic groups keep livestock especially cows. Both ethnic groups rustle cows. It has also been said that that the Fulani also rustle Fulani cows, while the Berom equally steal a fellow Berom’s cattle. On the other hand, the Berom rustle Fulani cows just as the Fulani also rustle Berom cows. The suspects arrested by security agents for cow rustling included Fulani, Berom as well as other tribes.

According to the Commander of the Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis, Major General David Enetie, “Cow rustling has become a lucrative business among the youths of Plateau State; youths in this state have developed the appetite in rustling cows and selling them for money. We consider that as criminal; this is different from the Jos crisis that we know, so all these attacks are no longer about Jos crisis; it is a newfound crime in the state. So each time you hear of an attack, there is cattle rustling behind it. If there is no cattle rustling, you will not hear of attacks.”

The understanding of many in the state has been that since it is the Fulani that are always suspected to be the attackers, it then means the victims of the attacks are the ones feeding on Fulani cows. This suspicion grew in the recent attacks in some Berom communities. The STF revealed that some cattle rustlers went to a Fulani settlement in Jos East and stole 400 cows. The criminals were reportedly in four groups. But the owner of the cows called STF distress line, prompting the security agents to respond immediately.

“STF followed the routes of the criminals and encountered them in a gun duel. We killed four of the criminals and recovered 280 cows. But then the Fulani thanked us and said they knew where the remaining 120 cows were and that they would go and look for the remaining cows. The Fulani knew the cows were taken to Foron village in Barkin Ladi LGA, that was the reason for the attack in Foron the next day”

Just as the STF commander puts it, “Some people will be condemning STF for not stopping the attacks or arrest the attackers. But people are not condemning the criminality. We have prevented several attacks in these local government but people don’t know this. If we follow up and recover rustled cows, you will not hear of attacks, but if cows are rustled and they are not recovered the owners of the cows have a way of discovering those who stole his cows and they go out for them.

The Nation found out that most communities are not ready to take responsibility for their own security.

Enetie said, “We keep preaching to the people to be vigilant at all times, we encourage them to set up local community groups to guard their environment day and night, but in most cases, the natives drink in the day and sleep carelessly at night to the extent that given any attack, the people are already weak to put up any challenge considering the way they drink in the day.

“Some of people are not sensitive to their own environment; how will you know when the enemy comes and already you know you are living with the enemy?”

The STF at times, deliberately refused to respond when they got distress calls because they expected the leaders of the communities to caution their youths from feeding on Fulani cows.

The STF said they believe that when the youths are going after the cows, the leaders pretend not to be aware, but when the Fulani came after those who steal the cows, it becomes a security issue. There will be no need for distress calls if the youths stop hunting for Fulani cows. In other words it is jungle justice meeting criminality.

The Berom insist that the attacks by their Fulani neighbours have nothing to do with cow rustling. They swore the youths never hunt for Fulani cows.

The chairman of Riyom Local Government Area, Mrs. Josephine Piyo said, “The allegation of the cattle rustling against the Berom youths cannot be true; rather, it is the Fulani that do steal cow belonging to the natives. Before now, a lot of Berom people bred cows, but today the Berom cannot keep cows again, their stock have been stolen by the Fulani. As if that is not enough, they attack our people without reason.”

The chairman of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Hon Emmanuel Loman also said, “These attacks by the Fulani are unprovoked; I have spent time and resources to ensure peace reign in my local government but after achieving relative peace for a moment, we will hear another attack by Fulani. I don’t know what the Fulanis are looking for. I mean this insecurity in Berom land is becoming protracted and devastating; the federal government needs to also give maximum attention. They are giving to North East to Plateau North Senatorial zone. I said so because since 2010, more than 10,000 Berom people have been killed by unknown gunmen; we keep crying out but the federal government seems not to take us serious. We have done within our own local power to stop these incessant attacks, the state government have equally done a lot, so what is required now is mass deployment of federal troops to the areas” said Hon Loman

Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM), formerly Berom Youth Movement has also said the reasons for Fulani attacks on their people goes beyond cattle rustling. The group’s national chairman, Mr. Samson Tsok while briefing press men in Jos over the crisis said, “We strongly believe that, the relentless guerrilla attacks and isolated killings that have been experienced in Berom Land since 2001 reveals a strategic character and placement within a wider framework designed to eliminate, displace and disposes the Berom from their ancestral and God-given land.

The Berom youth leader continued, “It has come to the knowledge of the Berom that the Fulani are assiduously and relentlessly fighting the Berom in order to violently create illegal grazing reserves and to achieve political territory in the fashion of Boko Haram. Already, the Fulani have forcibly expelled and dislodged the Berom from the boundary areas of Bachi, Gashish, and Jol (Mahanga) in Barkin Ladi/Riyom LGAs and well as Jos East and Mangu Local Government areas respectively.

“Special Task Force (STF) personnel on ground have failed to address the problem because some of them are accomplices in the crime against the Berom people, alleging that they are sometimes hired to perpetrate the crime or bribed to turn a blind eye when these attacks are carried out.

“Mercenaries have been hired from Chad and Niger to come and fight against the Berom in their land,” he added.

He also alleged that “It is also believed that there are terrorists training camps somewhere in Gashish, Bachi and Riyom districts. The Nigerian government and indeed the world should not stand aloof or turn a blind eye to the heinous crimes being perpetrated against the Berom. BYM demand justice, peace, and security for the people living and working in Berom land and Plateau state” he concluded.

But the questions that remain on everyone’s lip in the state is, why only in Berom land we here of Fulani attacks. Apart from the issue of cow rustling, The Nation found out that the protracted violent conflict in Berom land is a struggle over land between the Berom farmers and Fulani cattle breeders. The Fulani cattle breeders have been laying claims to a grazing reserve in Berom land. The Fulani claimed there is an international grazing route which passed through Berom land. They also believed that some of the Berom communities are settling and farming on their grazing route. With this belief, any farm or human settlement seen to causing obstruction to ‘free grazing’ of the Fulanis, they will devour it.

But Hon Daniel Dem, member representing Riyom constituency in Plateau house of assembly argued that even if the cause of the violence is over grazing routes, killings cannot be the solution, it is matter that can be resolved through dialogue and mutual understanding. “In any case, in all our peace parley the Fulani leaders have never complain about grazing reserve, so I don’t think that is part the reasons why they are attacking our people.