When bandits attacked Moriki – a small farming community in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara – last year and killed 25 villagers, Shamsu Musa did not weep. He stood beside their graves, feeling the weight of Moriki’s sorrow on his shoulders.
Few days after, he surveyed the hills and plain of Moriki – wondering over what will happen to the little kids, widows and the old people when the assailants return.
The bandits had left a note of warning, threatening to wipe out the remnants, and burn down the barns and silos and the lands upon which his harvest of millet, guinea corn and maize has flourished from birth.
“I won’t live to see the fall of Moriki like some people who abandon their birthplace during the time of trouble,” said 25-year-old Musa. “But if a man runs away from his home, who would defend it?”
This crisis began as a small tit-for-tat community clash in 2011 between Hausa farmers and Fulani nomadic herdsmen over cattle rustling.
Poor handling by local authorities, who have been accused by both sides of bias, resulted in distrust that partly led to its escalation.
Since 2011, the conflict has left more than 4,000 people dead, destroyed farmlands, rustled more than 25,000 cattle and impacted about 500 villages, according to state Governor Abdulaziz Yari.
The herdsmen have also accused villagers of killing their cattle.
