1. barbaric night killings in Jos, Nigeria blamed on Fulani herdsmen
Less than two months after hudreds of people lost their lives in two days of ethno-religious crises in Jos, Plateau State, another 500 have been reported killed in a night raid on Dogon Nahowa village, Jos South local government area, yesterday. Another source said over 200 were kiled. Both figures could not be confirmed last night. The villagers said their attackers were Fulani herdsmen who swooped on them while they slept.
Reports from the village said the attack, which lasted all of two hours, began at about midnight, and the victims were completely unprepared for the fury of the marauders. The intense gunfire and wild use of cutlasses and other metallic weapons left little chance for the victims who were hacked down and burnt as they attempted to escape the massacre.
A resident of the village, Peter Jang told Reuters news agency that, “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes.” As at press time, fear and suspicion has spread throughout the city of Jos, and anxious residents mostly kept to their homes, especially when reports spread that the mood in Mangu Local Government in central Plateau was tense. The attackers were said to have departed the scene of their mayhem unscathed; arriving and departing with such speed that neither the villagers nor the police could mobilise fast enough to stop their escape.
2. police arrest 93, recover weapons
“The Police arrested 93 person and they are in two categories,” the statement said.
“The police arrested 19 Fulani’s with sophisticated weapons in Anjuri village in Jos east Local Government Area,” it added.
According to the statement, the 19 Fulanis’ said they were on a revenge mission with the weapons.
“We also arrested 74 people from Mangu area of the state, with different weapons,” the police said.
Weapons recovered includes, four double barrel guns, two locally made double barrel, five AK 47, 5 mm ammunition, 34 live cartridge and many local made charms, the statement said.
3. about Fulani tribe –
The Fulani people call themselves Fulve* (Pullo, in singuler).They were originally nomadic herders, traders and farming people living throughout West Africa. Today the majority of fulani people live urban centers. While their origins are disputed, Arab writers recorded their existence over 1000 years ago. However experts believe that they originated from a region that occupied the present day Northern Senegal. Over the centuries, they migrated with their cattle to occupy vast areas in the Sahel and Savannah regions of West Africa and evolved into many subgroups with a variety of designations including Fulve, Jelgove, Gurma, Gorgave, Fellata, Fula, Fulakunda, Bororos, Wodaabe, Peul, Pulaar, Halpulaar, Liptaako, Toucouleur, and Tukolor. Presently, they live in communities throughout much of the West-Africa, from Senegal to Cameroon and as far east as Sudan and Ethiopia.The fulani range covers an area larger than continental United States and western Europe.
Historically, the Fulani played a significant role in the rise and fall of ancient African empires such as Ghana, Mali, Songhai and the Mossi states.
They greatly contributed to the spread of Islam throughout Western Africa. More recently, slavery and colonialism dispersed Fulani throughout the Middle East, the Americas and Europe. American history books are full of individuals of Fulani origin who have distinguished themselves in North and South America and the Caribbean.
Fulve have rich traditions and fascinating way of life. They have had a significant social, religious and political impact in West Africa. As minorities in most of the West African countries where they reside, the Fulani are steadily mixing with local dominant cultures. The phenomenon of local integration, combined with the impact of colonization and westernization, has slowly eroded the Fulani language and traditions.
If nothing is done to maintain their culture and language, the Fulani will simply vanish in a few generations. Without an awareness of the unique richness and formidable contribution of the Fulani traditions and without a serious effort to conserve and sustain the Fulani heritage, their culture may be lost forever. It is increasingly important to preserve this ancient culture. Jamtan.Com will explore the history, traditions and many aspects of Fulani culture to promote a better understanding of the Fulani people.
DESPITE A HISTORY OF CONFLICT WITH FARMERS, WHY WOULD THE FULANI PEOPLE START COMMITTING HEINOUS MIDNIGHT RAIDS MURDERING WOMEN AND CHILDREN?
ARE THE FULANI REALLY TO BLAME FOR THIS VIOLENCE? OR ARE THEY JUST A CONVENIENT SCAPEGOAT?
HOW DID THE FULANI GET IN AND OUT OF JOS SO QUICKLY? WITH THEIR HUMVEES?
4. a month ago: Nigeria: dry season forces Fulani to migrate
The prevailing dry season has forced Fulani herdsmen who are currently moving down south of the country with their herds, searching for greener grazing fields.
Nasarawa State , a major route, is currently witnessing groups of herders moving through to the greener fields of Southern Nigeria . The movement began earlier in the year, but it has heightened in the last two weeks, with unending herds of cattle trudging with luggage of their owners on the backs. A major part of the luggage, according to further observation, is the mat with which the cow boys use in sleeping in the open.
The movement is observed mostly around communities lying along the Jos-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi Road which links Nasarawa with Kaduna and Benue States .
Our correspondent observed that the Fulani cow boys move alongside their women who are seeing with large calabashes or other containers with boiled milk called Nono, selling as they move along.
One of them who stopped to speak to Daily Trust along Lafi-Makurdi Road said moving down south at this time of the year is a yearly practice, explaining that “so that our cattle can graze upon fresh fields.” He said up north, the fields are dry by this time, forcing them into the migration to Southern Nigeria .
A grazing route that will run through four neighbouring states - Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue and Ebonyi is on the way for Fulani herders as part of federal government’s efforts to tackle the incessant conflicts between the herders and farmers.
5. February 17th: Fulani herdsman “reported” and “suspected” of violence. the Fulani have some cows go missing, and they now want to retaliate against the people they believe took their cows.
Jos — Report of silent reprisal attacks in parts of Plateau State is growing by the day as some Fulani herdsmen are reported to have unleashed violent havoc on a Berom tribe village, in Riyom Local Government of the state with one person feared killed.
Also, farms produce worth millions of naira were destroyed in the Jol village last weekend, following a retaliatory attack suspected to have been carried out by the Fulani herdsmen.
…Also speaking on the development, the chairman of the Council Development Area, Mr Samuel Iliya said since the Fulani people gave them an ultimatum over the missing of their cows in the area they were having a sleepless nights over fear of retaliation by the herdsmen in the area.
6. February 12th: menace of Fulani herdsmen is a worry in Upper West — THIS IS LINKED BACK TO CLIMATE AS THE FARMERS AND THE FULANI BOTH STRIVE TO SURVIVE WITH A WATER SHORTAGE. THE DESTRUCTION IS BLAMED ON THE FULANI, BUT ARE THE FULANI MESSING WITH THE WEATHER? OR IS THAT SOMEONE ELSE?
Gwollu (U/W), Feb. 12, GNA - In the Upper West Region there is no community, village or settlement where people are not campaigning for the expulsion of Fulani herdsmen and their cattle from the Region.
Women and children are worried because they are leading a “Mickey Mouse” freedom class of life. Their social and economic activities have been curtailed. None of them can go to the bush to fetch vegetables, pick sheanuts, baobab fruits or dawadawa fruits for home consumption. The small boys can not also go for rats and other fruits that are of nutritional value to them.
Farmers are crying loud, they can no longer leave their foodstuffs in the farms. Their yams, cassava and millet that are left on their farm huts are broken into by herdsmen for their cattle to feed on. Yam and cassava mounds are destroyed and those who sow their yam seedlings get them eaten up by the cattle.
Water sources are drying up. Economic trees such as the shea have their branches slashed and the leaves used as fodder. All ant hills in the bush are eaten up by these cattle. The Fulanis add salt to water and pour it on the ant hills for the cattle to eat. Hunting has come to a halt in many of the communities in the Region.
Rape and defilement are high, threat to kill and killing farmers is equally high in the communities. Indeed the people have now become social and economic refugees on their own land, all in the good name of the Ghanaian hospitality and the Great ECOWAS Conventions.
In some of the communities one does not need to go to another community by following the old roads. There are now many paths created by these cattle leading to all communities in the Sissala West, Sissala East and Wa East Districts. The environment is completely destroyed and farmers now have to travel long distances this time round to their farms.
Madam Florence Zaato, Vice Chairperson of the Sissala Union, expressed worry about the huge environmental degradation caused by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle to the land at the annual general meeting of the union at Tumu recently.
She urged District Assemblies and Traditional Authorities to collaborate and get them out of the area to save the land for their children. She expressed unhappiness about their involvement in rape and armed robbery.
The South Sissala Tertiary Youth Association also appealed to the Chiefs of the South Sissala area and the Wa East District Assembly to expel all Fulani herdsmen from the area for degrading the land and making it unproductive.
Mr Timothy Nbenaba, President of the Association, explained that the decision to call for the expulsion of the Fulani herdsmen is to avert any future clash between the farmers in the area and the herdsmen that may consequently lead to loss of lives.
He said last year there were clashes leading to the payment of compensation by the herdsmen as a result of losses incurred by the farmers through the invasion of their farms by the herdsmen and their cattle.
At Gwollu the District Chief Executive of Sissala West, Mr Robert B. Wavei appealed to the youth to compel their chiefs and all those who had settled Fulani herdsmen and their cattle in the communities to let the herdsmen go.
He said it is disheartening for some chiefs to accept cattle from the herdsmen and to keep them in their communities and slaughter the animals to entertain their visitors.
A prominent farmer, who wants to remain anonymous, said the North would soon become a desert if the Fulani herdsmen and their cattle are not expelled.
He asked the Government to be bold to say no to the Fulani herdsmen to save the people from virtual bondage.
“After all, the Fulani herdsmen have somewhere to go but our people have nowhere to go when the land is destroyed,” he said.
He said the District Assemblies should not use revenue mobilisation as an excuse to harbour the herdsmen and close their eyes to the huge destruction that they are causing to the environment.
“The land belongs to the people and they must not be made to feel as slaves on their on land,” he said.
GNA
7. In the Philippines: El Nino drying up farms
MANILA, Philippines—Intense heat is drying up farmlands, reservoirs and waterways all over the country, and farmers are scrambling to find ways to cope and survive.
The abnormal signs of El Niño, a weather phenomenon referring to the warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean that results in drought in Asia and Australia, and wet winters in the United States, are exacting their toll in the Philippines, according to agriculture officials.
With the lack of rainfall and irrigation
water, Filipino farmers are keeping a closer watch over their fields so that whatever available water is used wisely.
Huge clumps of light-brown soil have appeared in the corn fields of Cagayan Valley and Pangasinan, while rice paddies have turned barren in Isabela, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Camarines Sur, Negros, Davao del Sur and other provinces.
The desert-like images have prompted some farmers to stop planting to cut losses.
