GENEVA Executive Summary DECLARATION Working Paper June 2011 Geneva Declaration Secretariat c/o Small Arms Survey 47 Avenue Blanc, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland A Deadly Cycle: Ethno-Religious Conflict t +41 22 908 5777 in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria f +41 22 732 2738 e [email protected] Jana Krause w www.genevadeclaration.org 2010a). The Middle Belt region, to which displaced (IRIN, 2005). After the 2008 Photo A victim of domestic violence with her daughter in Managua, WORKING PAPER Plateau State belongs, is one of the areas riot, more than 10,000 were displaced, Nicaragua, February 2009. © Riccardo Venturi/Contrasto/Dukas in GENEVA collaboration with Intervita DECLARATION worst hit. The 2001 Jos riot claimed at while violence in 2010 resulted in about least 1,000 lives in Jos (HRW, 2001). 18,000 people fleeing the clashes (IRIN, A DEADLY CYCLE: ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICT Subsequently, long-standing tensions 2010). Numerous houses in Jos have IN JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA within smaller towns and villages in been burned and blackened remnants Plateau State violently escalated. The litter the streets in many parts of the TACKLING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN killings only came to a halt when the city. All sides suffer a massive loss due federal government declared a state of to livelihoods destroyed. Violence and emergency in 2004, after about 700 displacement have reshaped Jos and people had been killed in an attack on the many rural settlements. As neighbour- town of Yelwa in southern Plateau State hoods become religiously segregated, (HRW, 2005). Clashes between Muslim ‘no-go areas’ alter patterns of residency, and Christian youths rocked the city of business, transportation, and trade. Jos again in 2008, killing at least 700. The year 2010 has been one of the worst on This report examines the root causes of Geneva Declaration Secretariat c/o Small Arms Survey 1 conflict in Jos and its transformation into 47 Avenue Blanc record, with more than 1,000 lives lost. 1202 Geneva Switzerland By Jana Krause www.genevadeclaration.org a wider ethno-religious protracted The human cost of the violence is conflict. It maps the spatial spread of immense. The number of internally violence that reshaped the face of the ver the last decade, the political displaced people since 2001 peaked city. The first part outlines the historical crisis over ‘indigene’ rights and in 2004, with up to 220,000 people background and socio-economic charac- O political representation in Jos, capital of Plateau State, has developed Figure 1 Conservative estimates of casualties in Plateau State, 2001–10 into a protracted communal conflict affecting most parts of the state. At least 2001 4,000 and possibly as many as 7,000 people have been killed since late 2001, 2002 when the first major riot broke out in Jos 2003 in more than three decades (see Figure 1). 2004 Ten years later, only the heavy presence 2005 of military and police forces ensures a 2006 fragile calm in the city. Tensions between 2007 ethnic groups rooted in allocation of 2008 resources, electoral competition, fears of religious domination, and contested 2009 land rights have amalgamated into an 2010 explosive mix. The presence of well- 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 organized armed groups in rural areas, the proliferation of weapons, and the sharp Note: rise in gun fatalities within Jos all point to Data is drawn from information and unpublished memoranda received from local communities in Jos; from the ACLED the real risk of future large-scale violence. database for Nigeria (ACLED, n.d.); from research on the LexisNexis newspaper database; and from Human Rights Watch reports and press releases (2001; 2005; 2006; 2008; 2010a; 2010b; 2010c; 2011). Victim numbers for rural attacks may More than 13,500 people have been killed have been under-reported in local and international newspapers. Other sources list higher estimates; Higazi (2011) in communal violence since Nigeria calculates a total death toll of at least 7,000 people for the last decade, with an estimated 5,000 people killed in 2001–04 returned to civilian rule in 1999 (HRW, and another 2,000 in 2008–10. teristics to Plateau State. The second between the native tribes and the Hausa. protracted conflict. A thorough reframing part analyses the root and proximate Indigene certificates ensure access to of a once-localized conflict over indigene causes of the conflict and documents political representation and positions rights into a religious crisis of regional perceptions among the local population within the civil service. Only local gov- and national dimension has taken place. about the current situation. The analysis ernments issue these certificates and Ten years of violent confrontations and then focuses on the violent episodes therefore decide over indigene status. the utmost brutality of last year’s massa- and investigates the characteristics of This arrangement opened the floodgates cres around Jos left many residents urban and rural violence. In its final for the politics of labelling and the selec- traumatized. Religious identities have section, the report provides an overview tive reciting of historical accounts that become strongly polarized and one- of violence prevention and peacebuilding foster group boundaries to secure politi- sided conflict narratives internalized. efforts pursued by the Plateau State cal control over local government areas. government, civil society actors, and Within a socio-political environment When you see your family slaughtered, international donors over the last decade. characterized by strong patronage much of the religious values become networks, exclusion of one fraction of irrelevant. You cannot be peaceful 4 The report is based on field research the political elite is widely felt as socio- anymore. carried out in Jos in November and economic decline among its constituency. December 2010. The author conducted Despite a host of peace efforts on all The urban conflict dynamics interlink with levels of society, the situation in Plateau more than 60 interviews with local tensions in rural areas. The increasing residents, community and religious State has only worsened. The main political scarcity of land and access to riverbanks actors in the perpetuated crisis have been leaders, local NGO staff, journalists, has resulted in contested claims over on the scene over the last decade. The university researchers, ward heads, and land use between indigene farmers and lack of political will to resolve the crisis local politicians. Interviews with local Fulani herders. has long been lamented. Just after the residents were mostly held in the worst- 2001 riots, the Christian leader of Plateau affected poor neighbourhoods of Jos Religion reinforces the boundaries State’s Inter-Religious Committee urged city. Two focus group discussions were between the mostly Christian indigenes political leaders and elders to ‘bury their held on community violence prevention and the Muslim Hausa and Fulani in both differences’ and cooperate for the common strategies. The author visited youth out- urban and rural conflicts. In principle, good of all communities, specifically reach peace activities, such as a high these root causes of conflict are well naming former governor Joshua Dariye school peace club and a group discussion understood. Nigerian scholars have and current governor Jonah Jang among subsequent to an interfaith soccer match. elaborated the problem of indigene rights others (AllAfrica, 2002). Discussions were also held with several in several publications. Yet there has been residents who were active in local com- a lack of political will to address the Trading in illegal arms is endemic all over munity peace activities. In addition to a situation. The subsequent escalation Nigeria. Since the crisis, illegal weapons literature review, the report draws on of large-scale urban and rural violence have also proliferated within the city of newspaper reporting of violent incidents over the last decade contributed to the Jos and all over Plateau State. In addition, and peacemaking efforts over the last a significant number of weapons are decade.2 All interview respondents have manufactured locally. Local communities been cited anonymously. Box 1 Nigeria’s citizenship crisis blame each other for acquiring weapons and preparing for the next attack. Arms In principle, all Nigerian This study finds that the historical, are not only financed and supplied by regional, and religious dimensions of citizens are equal no matter the circumstances of their ethnic and religious militias, politicians, the Jos crisis are crucial for understand- birth and whether or not they wealthy individuals, or traditional rulers, ing the protracted nature of the current reside in their places of origin. but also by local communities via religious conflict situation. Geographically, Jos But in practice, one is a Nigerian citizen only in his groups or cultural and development lies in the centre of Nigeria, between the state of origin [. .] no matter organizations.5 The sharp rise in gun predominantly Muslim north and the for how long one resides or fatalities in the 2008 and 2010 Jos riots mostly Christian south. The city of Jos was domiciles in a state other than his own (Ojukwu and Onifade, testifies to the alarming number of illegal established around tin mining activities 2010, p. 176). arms in circulation. Despite numerous during colonial times. It attracted migrants The conflict over citizenship and peace efforts, the situation on the from all parts of Nigeria for work in the indigene rights is in no way peculiar to Plateau is at its worst today. mines and with the colonial administra- Plateau State. Most states of the tion. The colonial legacy of indirect rule Nigerian federation face an indigene Compounding the tragedy of the Jos or citizenship crisis. The constitution initially relied on northern emirate crisis, violent clashes are no longer only privileges local descent over residency. structures. Later, political power was Those who leave their state of origin sparked by deliberate political instigation transferred to the ‘native’ tribes of the risk becoming ‘second-class citizens’ during election times.