Communal conflicts in Nigeria

Communal conflicts in Nigeria can be divided into two broad categories:
 * ethnic conflicts, attributed to actors primarily divided by cultural, ethnic, or religious communities and identities, such as instances of religious violence between Christian and Muslim communities
 * herder-farmer conflicts, typically involving disputes over land and/or cattle between herders (in particular the Fulani or Hausa) and farmers (in particular the Tiv or Tarok)

The most impacted states are those of the Nigerian Middle Belt like Benue, Taraba and Plateau. Violence has reached two peaks in 2004 and 2011 with around 2,000 fatalities those years. It resulted in more than 700 fatalities in 2015.

Herder-farmer conflicts
Since the Fourth Nigerian Republic’s founding in 1999, farmer-herder violence has killed thousands of people and displaced tens of thousands more. Insecurity and violence have led many populations to create self-defence forces and ethnic militias, which have engaged in further violence. The majority of farmer-herder clashes have occurred between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian peasants, exacerbating ethnoreligious hostilities.

Other examples
Additional instances of ethnic violence in Nigeria exist; these are often urban riots or such, for example the Yoruba-Hausa disturbances in Lagos, the Igbo massacre of 1966 or the clashes between the Itsekiri and the Ijaw in Delta state. Others are land disputes between neighbours, such as clashes between Ile-Ife and Modakeke in the late 1990s and in Ebonyi State in 2011.