Goska is just five minutes up the road from Dangoma in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region. But between the two villages are divisions so deep – and so devoid of compassion and understanding – they threaten the unity of Africa’s most populous nation.

Bullet holes and abandoned, burned-out buildings in Goska are evidence something sudden and terrible happened there. Moses Berde, the village head, explains that more than 40 people were killed and over 100 homes destroyed in back-to-back attacks on 24 and 25 December last year.

In this farming village of solid, mud-brick buildings, there’s no doubt who the culprits are. They accuse their Fulani neighbours in Dangoma of hiring armed Fulani pastoralists from outside the area to do their dirty work. The interlopers now graze their cattle on Goska’s rich farmland, driving off anyone bold enough to venture near.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/deadly-conflict-tearing-nigeria-apart-not-boko-haram/