Guns, Religion and Climate Change Intensify Nigeria’s Deadly Farmer-Herder Clashes by Krista Mahr – Los Angeles Times
… The fragile security in Nigeria, set to become the world’s third-most populous country by 2050, has been a central theme in the run-up to national elections scheduled for Feb. 23 after a weeklong delay.
President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani former military leader who was elected in 2015, has failed to stop the violence in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, a swath of states riven by the long-simmering conflict between farmers and herders.
Nor has he stamped out the Islamist Boko Haram group that still stages regular attacks in the northeast — a broken election promise that critics, including his chief opponent in the presidential race, Atiku Abubakar, often point out.
In the farmer-herder conflict, nearly 2,000 people were killed last year alone in attacks and counter-attacks, according to Amnesty International…