Food Shortages in Kano

In the first four years following Nigeria's return to democracy in 1999, at least 10,000 people have been killed in communal violence across the country. In recent months, Nigeria has experienced more frequent clashes.

A typical scene in rural southern Plateau State, where over 80 villages have been destroyed and 100,000 people displaced. Most lost everything as they fled with little warning of the attacks. Photo by CRS Staff

Since February 2004, southern Plateau State communities have experienced violent clashes, manipulated by ethnic, political, commercial and religious interests and differences. The crisis peaked when Yelwa, in southern Plateau, was repeatedly attacked and counterattacked by armed gangs, resulting in the complete destruction of the town of 20,000 inhabitants.

Following the violence in Yelwa, a peaceful Muslim demonstration in Kano turned violent, when vigilantes targeted Christian communities. Before the military was able to restore security, lives had been lost, 50,000 people were displaced and homes and household property destroyed and looted. While a strong police and military force maintain calm in Kano, high levels of tension still remain. These tensions have deep roots in Nigeria, stemming from long-standing ethnic and cultural clashes between Christians and Muslims.

CRS Responds

Working with The Archdiocese of Jos, the Diocese of Kano, and Caritas Nigeria, CRS designed a detailed and immediate response to the violence in Kano. This response included providing affected families with non-food items such as basic household items that were lost or destroyed during the crisis, as well as food distributions to help cover the anticipated two-month hunger period. This hunger shortage occurred because many of the families displaced by the violence are farmers who rely on harvest planting in early May to "feed" September's food harvest. Since planting was disrupted, these families were forced to deplete their food reserves.

This mother and her children are among the tens of thousands of Muslims who've fled Plateau State due to the violence. They live with 3,500 others in a small school in neighboring Bauchi State. Photo by CRS Staff

In addition, CRS and its partners proposed longer-term development programs to help mitigate future cultural and ethic clashes. This proposal included the development of an inter-faith, multi-agency emergency response and training program. This Emergency Preparedness and Response Training (EPRT) project would build on the successes of and lessons learned from numerous past and current CRS projects, in particular EPRT programs in Madagascar, Angola and Uganda, as well as incorporate an inter-faith/inter-communal approach built on existing CRS Nigeria Justice and Peace programming.

Background: A Long and Complex History of Conflict

This latest unrest in Kano is a frightening indicator that tensions remain close to the surface in Nigeria. In a country with high levels of poverty, the underlying issues of access to scarce resources such as land and jobs are as much of an issue as ever.

The violence affecting this region crosses different tribal and cultural divides, sometimes pitting Muslims against Christians. Nigerians tend to be very mobile people, and over the past decade, the 250 ethnic groups making up this country have migrated. This has created a situation in which southern Christians now live in the north, and many northern Hausa and Fulani Muslims have moved to the South. While certainly complex, the conflict between communities can most often be attributed to a sense of territory entitlement between those that see themselves as the true "indigenes" of an area, and those who are considered to be "settlers". The intensity of these conflicts are growing, as seen by spontaneous small bands of people with machetes being replaced by organized and well-armed gangs.

Unbalanced media stories have also fanned both sides of the conflicts in this region. "Religion is being used by those who should know better. This is really a clash between the truth and falsehoods," said Ustaz Sani ibn Salim, with Jama'atu Nasril Islam, an Islamic aid agency collaborating with the Archdiocese of Jos to respond to the regions crises.

Over the past few decades Nigeria's population has grown rapidly, but despite the country's vast oil wealth, the economy has failed to keep pace. Nigerians have been getting poorer by the year and the inadequate education for the vast majority of the population has produced a frustrated and angry underclass of largely urban, unemployed youths. It is to this disempowered group that some ambitious politicians both at a local and national level seek to gain advantage from social division.