Farmers/ Hersders clash: Islamic Bank VP berates 4, 000 dead

*calls for reformation of justice

The Chairman of the just concluded National Conference on Livestock Reforms and Mitigation of Associated Conflict, and Vice President Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) Mansur Mukhtar has lamented on the  continuous farmers-herders clash that have resulted to more than 4,000 death.

Speaking at the event Mukhtar pointed that the issue of farmers and pastorialists have been an issue of national concern in recent times with rising numbers of casualties and more than 4,000 people reported dead.

The Islam Bank VP pointed that it was obvious that we cannot talk about mitigating conflict without thinking of reforming our security agencies and justice architectures to prevent people taking laws into their hands, adding that multilateral agencies like ECOWAS needs to play a more active role in addressing the security situation against the increasing evidence of herders' migration with arms polifiration. 

According to him " People have lost their lives in this conflict and so many people have been affected, and there are several thousands that have sustained both physical and emotional injuries, while fatality were initially rampant in the Northern part of the country, and they have since spread to the entire country aggravating to religious and tribal conflicts. In addition to the unfortunate lost of lives, this conflict has brought a major set back, as there are increasing numbers of displaced persons leading to the breakdown of family units and also destruption  of education, especially for young girls. This crisis has also undermined agricultural production, compromising our nation food security, especially in this period of rising food crisis and food shortage, making some part of the country the epic centre, which is fast spreading to some other regions"

Among other things to be considered, the chairman of National Conference on livestock reform and mitigation said that the issue of climate change needs to be taken more seriously as we need to think of how to manage our environment, even though we have a National policy on Climate change being adopted in 2012, little progress has been made in terms of implementation.

He further stressed the need for the stakeholders to continue to dialogue not only at the city levels, but also at the community levels, saying that working at the grassroot level is very critical as it would enhance engagement at the community levels with  primary stakeholders.

He also advocated involvement of traditional institutions and rulers who the people had already entrusted in the effort to end these clashes.