The Fulani herdsmen attacked at 6:00 am, just after morning prayers in Nimbo, an idyllic village in southeast Nigeria where farmers grow yams and pawpaws.

At first the villagers thought it was a joke. The nomadic cattle rearers, who have clashed with farmers over grazing rights in central Nigeria for decades, had never come this far south.

But then they saw 20 young men descend from the hills and emerge from the palm tree forest, shooting AK-47 assault rifles in the air and waving machetes.

"We started hearing the sound of gunshots everywhere. They shot so many people," Kingsley Oneyebuchie, a 31-year-old civil servant, told AFP.

"They shot one of my brothers, they used a knife on my dad, they killed so many," he said from his hospital bed in the nearby town of Nsukka, bare-chested and wearing only red athletic shorts.

Oneyebuchie ran his fingers tentatively over a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) track of blue surgical stitches at the base of his scalp.

"They used machete on me. After using machete on me, they thought that I died," he said.

Oneyebuchie was lucky to survive the attack on April 25. At least 10 people are thought to have been killed and scores of others injured.

- Ethnic lines -

In the past year, raids by Fulani herdsmen have increased in the southeast.

The worst happened some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away in Agatu, Benue state, in late February, where hundreds of people -- most of them Christian farmers -- were reportedly killed.

The bloodshed mirrors that after Nigeria gained independence in 1960, when Igbos dominant in the mainly Christian southeast, were pitted against Hausa and Fulani in the largely Muslim north.

The ethnic violence led to two military coups, hundreds of deaths -- and ultimately a civil war, when the southeast broke away and declared an independent Republic of Biafra in 1967.

Some one million Igbos died either fighting for the fledgling nation or from starvation and disease in a brutal conflict that by its end in 1970 left the southeast broken.

Now, stricken villagers maintain the only solution to the Fulani attacks -- and perceived northern domination of political posts from the president downwards -- is an independent state.

"We need to know that this is Igbo and this is Fulani," said Oneyebuchie. "We want them to leave our place so that we will be free."

- Growing conflict -

According to the Global Terrorism Index 2015 report, "Fulani militants" killed 1,229 people in 2014 -- up from 63 in 2013 -- making them the "fourth most deadly terrorist group" in the world.

Most deaths happened in Nigeria's religiously mixed so-called Middle Belt states.

But the apparent migration south into Igbo territory is being used by an increasingly hardline pro-Biafra movement as an indication the Nigerian government doesn't serve or protect the region and is stoking discontent in the southeast.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Hausa-Fulani who opposes the pro-Biafran movement, took until late April to speak out about the herdsmen, saying he had ordered military and police to "take all necessary action to stop the carnage".

He has proposed setting up a grazing plan that includes the establishment of cattle ranches and importing grass feed from Brazil.

Critics argue his response is too little, too late and overly ambitious.

"I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres," Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said recently, describing the ranch plan as "optimistic".

- 'A second genocide' -

The arrest and detention of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu last year catapulted him and his more hardline pressure group into the mainstream.

"Buhari has authorised a second genocide on Biafra," IPOB, which has been campaigning for Kanu's release through public protests, said about the herdsmen.

"Biafrans are on the verge of being exterminated," it added.

In Nimbo, the farmers use less emotive language but their underlying message is the same.

Today the village is deserted, with shiny new padlocks fastened on the wood doors of mud-brick houses and hectares of cassava and melon crops abandoned until safer times.

"We have been complaining to government, complaining to everyone, no help," said Thaddeus Okenwa, a 65-year-old cassava farmer with a raspy voice and muscular hands.

"We are now just managing because nothing goes normal. If they can give us our own independence, let's go.

"We don't pray for war now, but this (the Fulani issue) can cause it because you can't be a stranger in your home."


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3594546/Nigerias-growing-Fulani-conflict-stokes-Biafran-cause.html

These Fulani's aren't Nigerians to start with, but their causing problems everywhere .. End product of having a bigoted presido , who knows? it could be a blessing in disguise, paving way for a new nation ....

Lalasticlala come and push this to frontpage

its like UK is gradually distancing themselves from this mess of a country. No sane country ally with a failed state like Nigeria. Trump will be more blunt

2016 is no 1967

I am afraid the UK daily mail is right. Fulani are not even from Nigeria. They are not Nigerians.

Seems every bad news is paving way for Biafra

Little by little. We are almost there. Ntoor, to those who will remain slaves forever.

Hit like if you know those I referred to, or share if you want me to call their name.

Lalasticlala please come and see fp material

ok, seen!

The Sun will rise again in the East

See them , losers with victim mentality, always acting as if every one is against them. U are not the only ones the herdsmen attacked and U are not the only tribe in Nigeria. Clowns from the east

Masterpiece ..See word build up, events description cum character painting .. Oyibo eh ..

OK, let me ask my people ..


*Like to agree with UK daily mail ..

*Share to disprove their opinion..

victorvezx:
See them , losers with victim mentality, always acting as if every one is against them. U are not the only ones the herdsmen attacked and U are not the only tribe in Nigeria. Clowns from the east

I said it, one of them just commented.

Nigeria should be a country built on brotherhood not animosity. It all comes down to greed, envy and bigotry.(religious and ethnic bigotry)

No single leader besides Nnamdi Azikiwe have risen above the aforementioned.

Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello were the embodiment of bigotry. They are the Big disgrace that destroyed Nigeria at cradle stage. We just living in Nigeria grave. Nigeria died in the 1960s.


Nigeria only has death to offer now.

Why the sudden interest in nigeria?

the worst mistake fulani made is to attack igbos

am happy that even the white men are seeing that Nigeria is not working and cannot work.

victorvezx:
See them , losers with victim mentality, always acting as if every one is against them. U are not the only ones the herdsmen attacked and U are not the only tribe in Nigeria. Clowns from the east

Leave your self some space






long live

austinsmat:
the worst mistake fulani made is to attack igbos

Yeah.
Thunder will continue to destroy them for that attempt.

Despite court actions, all Wailers are mandated to honor our May, 21 mega convention here on NL ..

All Exco members are hereby warned to desist from selling/hiring/lending of ANY wailing form to any individual or group as we check balance this government come May, 29 ..

..Dailymail UK is hereby advised to collect back their token to whoever scammed them of a wailers form ..

Date of election of new officers and induction of fresh wailees will be communicated later ..

victorvezx:
See them , losers with victim mentality, always acting as if every one is against them. U are not the only ones the herdsmen attacked and U are not the only tribe in Nigeria. Clowns from the east

They can kill their slaves in the west not us

We thank Chukwu Abiama.

Nnamdi Kanu is our leader. My loyalty belongs to him!

Let us go, and we shall build a 'Japan' in Anambra within 5yrs

No peace anywhere in Nigeria.

Nigeria that used to be a peaceful nation.

UmuEri:
We thank Chukwu Abiama.

Nnamdi Kanu is our leader. My loyalty belongs to him!

Let us go, and we shall build a 'Japan' in Anambra within 5yrs

in Bi@fraland you mean..

Dailymail should concentrate on telling their government to return all stolen monies and properties and stop speculating about things they have no proof of. They know how to use "allegedly" very well. As they are not sure of anything. Ever.

Interesting

Well, this sudden fascination with Nigeria seems like a kiss of death.

The dastardly act of the herdsmen is one of the centrifugal forces threatening to pull this country apart and the tepid response from the government has only accentuated the crisis even further.
The facetious remark by the President that the herdsmen came from Libya makes one wonder if he understands how grave the issue is.
This country is teetering on the edge of an abyss, the President should not push her down that path with his divisiveness.

This British tabloid captured the essence of the Igbo soul....






Nwereonwe

Eastcoast33:
in Bi@fraland you mean..

It's none of your business. BTW, who invited you here?

.

this zoo don expired tey tey

Dollyak:
Well, this sudden fascination with Nigeria seems like a kiss of death.

Correctly observed.
Honestly, I'm suspecting something. I hope it turns out to be true.