Conflict and Killings in Nigeria’s Middle Belt
Announcement
Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing on the deteriorating human rights situation in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, including its religious dimensions, and proposed responses.
The underlying causes of the conflict in Nigeria’s Middle Belt are complex and varied. They include competition for access to land and other resources between pastoralists and farmers exacerbated by drought, desertification, and climate change. In a part of the country where farmers are mainly Christian and pastoralists are mainly Muslim and ethnic Fulani, deadly confrontations have sharpened ethnic, regional and religious polarization. Precise statistics are unavailable and fatality counts are contested, but one analysis estimated that farmer-pastoralist conflicts killed 2,000 Nigerians annually between 2011 and 2016. Some have described attacks by pastoralists as a persecution of Christians, amounting to an attempted or unfolding genocide. Some Muslim leaders, for their part, have described attacks on Fulani as part of an effort to purge Nigeria’s Muslim community. The Nigerian state has failed to provide protection or ensure accountability for any of the victims.
In its newly released annual Statistical Risk Assessment (SRA), the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide calculated that Nigeria as a whole faces a 7.3% risk of experiencing a new mass killing by the end of 2021, the 6th highest in the world. In last year’s SRA, Nigeria was ranked 17th with a 5% risk. For purposes of the report, a mass killing occurs when the deliberate actions of armed groups result in the deaths of at least 1,000 noncombatant civilians targeted as part of a specific group over a period of one year or less. The Center did not find evidence that groups perpetrating violence in north-central Nigeria are coordinating in a campaign against a particular group of civilians. Also this month, the State Department designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for violations of religious freedom, opening the country up to possible economic sanctions.
Witnesses will examine Nigeria’s Middle Belt and pastoralist-farmer conflicts, current conflict dynamics, historical background, humanitarian aspects, internal displacement and impunity, and explore recommendations for U.S. and international responses.
This is a hybrid hearing. Pursuant to H. Res. 965, Members of Congress and witnesses who wish to participate remotely may do so via Cisco WebEx. Members of the public and the media may view the hearing by live webcast on the Commission website. The hearing will also be available for viewing on the House Digital Channel 51. For any questions, please contact Piero Tozzi at 202-225-3765 (for Rep. Smith) or Kimberly Stanton at 202-805-6308 (for Rep. McGovern).
Hosted by:
Member of Congress
Co-Chair, TLHRC
Member of Congress
Co-Chair, TLHRC
Opening Remarks
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Rep. Christopher H. Smith, Co-Chair, TLHRC
Written remarks -
Rep. James P. McGovern, Co-Chair, TLHRC
Written remarks
Witnesses
Panel I
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Sam Brownback, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom
Written testimony -
Morse Tan, Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice
Written testimony -
Robert Destro, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Written testimony
Panel II
- Nina Shea, Director, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute
Written testimony -
Ann Buwalda, Executive Director, Jubilee Campaign USA
Written testimony -
H.E. William Avenya, Bishop of Gboko, Nigeria
Written testimony -
Jane Adolphe, Ave Maria School of Law
Written testimony -
R.H. Baroness Cox, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom, and Co-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion and Thought
Written testimony -
Udo Jude Ilo, Nigeria Country Officer, Open Society Initiative for West Africa
Written testimony - Mike Jobbins, Vice President, Global Affairs and Partnerships, Search for Common Ground
Written testimony
Submitted for the Record
- Amnesty International, Statement for the Record
- Search For Common Ground, Statement from Fatima Madaki, Project Manager for Advancing Religious Tolerance
- A Statement for the Record from Rev. Fr. Anthony I. Bature, Head of Department, Religious Studies; Chaplain at St. Francis of Assisi Chaplaincy, Federal University of Technology, Wukari, Taraba State; Executive Director of the Foundation for Peace, Hope, and Conflict Management (FPHCM); and member of the Forum on Farmer and Herder Relations in Nigeria.
- 2020 Nigeria Country Update, USCIRF
Video
Note: If you cannot see the above video, use this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPmcjiGyFoI