Qaddafi regime’s legacy fuels violence in W Africa

Bloomberg

Centuries-old communal tensions across West Africa are taking an increasingly bloody turn, fuelled by competition for land and water and an influx of weapons and fighters from Libya.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed that cocktail of guns and gunmen for the intensifying clashes between crop farmers and herders as well as robberies and kidnapping by
bandit gangs.
The violence is stoking Nigeria’s ethnic and religious divisions and is rivaling Boko Haram’s nine-year-old extremist insurgency in the northeast as the nation’s biggest security crisis.
The fallout from the downfall of Moammar Qaddafi’s regime in Libya almost seven years ago is worsening conflict in Nigeria and other countries in the region such as Mali and Niger where al-Qaeda- and IS-inspired groups operate, according to analysts including Nnamdi Obasi of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.
“Some arms looted after Qaddafi’s fall have been acquired by various groups, including extremist insurgents, cattle rustlers and other bandits, herders and farming communities, aggravating conflicts and insecurity in northern Nigeria,” he said.
“Secondly, some of the fighters that fled Libya have reportedly offered mercenary services to groups in conflict elsewhere or probably formed deadly bandit groups themselves.”
While Buhari’s administration has made some progress in weakening Boko Haram’s insurgency, the office of Senate President Bukola Saraki said 937 people were killed in attacks by gunmen and in the farmer-herder violence from January 1 to April 30.
Civic groups say about 170,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Benue state alone.
The proliferation of small arms has played a role in expanding the conflicts, but the government must couple its security efforts with a focus on dealing with environmental change, said Idayat Hassan, executive director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development.
Issues the authorities must deal with include a constant shift in human and livestock population, the state’s weak capacity and the rise of criminality and insecurity in rural areas, she said.