Dozens reported dead in clashes between farmers, herders

Dozens of people died and hundreds were displaced in clashes that broke out a week ago between local farming communities and nomadic Fulani herders in Mambilla plateau, northeastern Nigeria, police and local officials said. "No fewer than 40 people died both on the side of the Fulanis and the Mambilla," Gamji Yusuf, an official of the Sarduana local government area, which includes Mambilla, told IRIN. "Many Fulani herdsmen have since fled across the border into Cameroon for fear of reprisal attacks." Taraba State Police Commissioner Egbe Mfom told journalists on Monday in the state capital, Jalingo, that the fighting broke out on 31 December in Tonga Maina village following a dispute over grazing land. He said the violence was brought under control with the deployment of anti-riot policemen to the affected areas. "We have also arrested a number of people, who said they were hired by some influential people to engage in the fighting," Mfom said. Some of those arrested were reportedly foreigners from neighbouring countries and were paraded before journalists along with weapons, including a sub-machine gun, said to have been recovered from them. Clashes between pastoral and farming communities linked to disputes over grazing land, have become frequent in parts of central and northern Nigeria in recent years. Some analysts have blamed the trend on increasing desertification, which is pushing herders southwards in their search for pasture, often putting them in conflict with farmers.