Gunmen believed to be Fulani cattle herders killed 20 farmers praying inside a mosque over a land dispute in central Nigeria, a police spokesman told AFP Monday.

The attackers opened fire at the place of worship in Etogi village during morning prayers on Saturday, Niger state police spokesman Bala Elkana said.

“The gunmen opened fire on the worshippers inside the mosque during morning prayers and killed all the 20 worshippers,” Elkana said.

“They later shot sporadically on the village, injuring eight people.”

The shooting was a revenge attack after farmers killed one herder in a clash days earlier, the spokesman added.

The herders, who were raising cattle and farming, had settled near Etogi village on the condition that they would give a portion of their harvest to the community every season.

But the herders reneged on the agreement this year, refusing to pay the tax and instead claiming that the land belongs to them, according to the police.

“This led to a clash in which one herder was killed. The (latest) attack was to avenge the death,” Elkana explained.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the violence.

Deadly clashes between herders and farmers in Nigeria over land and water rights are frequent, especially in the Middle Belt region, which is considered the country’s agricultural heartland.

The resource conflict has been exacerbated in some areas by ethnic and religious tensions, with farming communities often Christian and herders Muslim.

Sparse vegetation in the north along with the gradual encroachment of the desert has forced largely nomadic herders to move south in search of food for their cattle.

That has led to clashes with farming communities over competition for limited resources.

Efforts by authorities to end hostilities between the two sides have not been successful.

The Nigerian government last year announced a plan to create grazing reserves for herders across the country to relieve tensions.

But farming communities rejected the plan, forcing the government to put it on hold:

http//punchng.com/herdsmen-kill-20-farmers-inside-mosque-police/

so what exactly would it cost to ban open grazing?

Ethnic cleansing and land grabbing via malu.. in Nigeria yet nobody talks

Their father is away, VP can make the call now.

APC is Fulani herdsmen

These people are mentally mentally disabled

........................

Now if this had happened against a Benue, Plateau or southern Kaduna community which are predominantly Christians, some e-rats and their likes would have turned it into a religious/ethnic conflict.

ItsMeAboki:
Now if this had happened against a Benue, Plateau or southern Kaduna community which are predominantly Christians, some e-rats and their likes would have turned it into a religious/ethnic conflict.

There's a question I have had on my mind. Isn't the average nomadic cattle rearing Fulani an Animist. Those hair braiding, skinny trousers wearing men and those women with navel revealing traditional clothes aren't muslims, are they? I grew up in the north central and I know those guys I've met are not muslims. Can you shed more light on this. What percentage of the cattle rearing nomads are actually muslims?

WORLDPEACE:

There's a question I have had on my mind. Isn't the average nomadic cattle rearing Fulani an Animist. Those hair braiding, skinny trousers wearing men and those women with navel revealing traditional clothes aren't muslims, are they? I grew up in the north central and I know those guys I've met are not muslims. Can you shed more light on this. What percentage of the cattle rearing nomads are actually muslims?

They are not Muslims you are right. Mostly animists. Bit they dominate the nominal Muslims, so go figure.