Nigeria: Yoruba/Fulani relations at breaking point, as Buhari security promises ring hollow

Last month, a fight between two men in Shasha market in Ibadan – a Yoruba cobbler and a Hausa cart pusher – triggered a wave of conflict that spilled out of the market and into the host community, with the Yorubas targeting northerners. In protest of the killing of their people, northern traders blocked the movement of food items and cattle southwards, pushing food prices upwards.

The year began with recurrent incidents of herdsmen killings and kidnappings in several parts of the southwest. Since most of the herders are from northern Nigeria, the indigenes in the southwest – who are mostly Yoruba – fought back.

“The crisis happening between the northerners and the Yorubas in Southwest Nigeria cannot be disconnected from the heightened security challenges facing the country,” says Kazeem Gani, a resident of Kishi in Oke Ogun, Oyo State. “Those of us living in Ibarapa and Oke Ogun axis