Ipalim-Bafmeng: Communities beg for urgent intervention as fresh farmer/grazier conflict erupts.

Cross section of Muslims at a meeting in Ipalim

Residents of the farming community of Ipalim, near Bafmeng, Menchum Division of the North West Region, are calling for urgent action to end growing tension and clashes between nomadic livestock herders and arable farmers in the area.

The conflict erupted recently in the area. Ipalim natives have been accusing cattle herders of allowing their animals to destroy their crops.



The tensions have grown with fears of possible escalation in the days ahead.

Both communities have been calling for urgent government intervention to put an end to the fracas which is likely to result in human and material losses.

Muslims in the village have said their wish is to have peaceful cohabitation with the people of Ipalim. 

Ipalim villagers, for their part, have been crying out for help, while raising an alarm on the imminent famine for the village following the destruction of their crops.

Tension, it should be recalled, erupted in Ipalim after villagers reportedly poisoned ten cows for invading their farms. 

The villagers have however denied responsibility over the action which has since provoked a cold war between communities. 

Ipalim, just like other communities in Menchum Division are not new to farmer/grazier conflicts. The Division has a long history of deadly conflicts between crop farmers and pastoralists.

In July 2005, the decades-long Wum farmer/grazier escalated, obliging the setting up of a commission by then North West Governor, Koumpa Issa. The conflict then had taken a bloody and confrontational dimension.

The local population, championed by youths, are reported to have formed militant groups that beat up and inflict injuries on graziers. 

In retaliation, the graziers, most of them also youths, are said to have armed themselves with knives and other lethal weapons ready for self-defence.

It was gathered then that an Aku youth called Ibrahim Nyako, was beaten to unconsciousness by the population after he reportedly threw some charms believed to be lethal on a farmer.

Buh Sule, SDF District Chairman for Wum, said then that Nyako went to a piece of grazing land which he had bought only to find somebody else cultivating it. 

He was the more embarrassed that the "intruder" was the kid brother of the same person from whom he bought the land. 

Some rude exchanges took place and soon degenerated into a confrontation; the 'intruder' "emerged second best" in the conflict.

Finding that on his own he could not defeat the grazier, the youthful farmer returned home and soon went back accompanied by a crowd who got the grazier thoroughly beaten. 

The situation was very much to the discomfort of Alexander Njoya, then Menchum SDO who regretted that the commission set up by Koumpa Issa was supposed to meet but did not do so, because most of its members failed to turn up. 

The SDO, who said then Wum Central DO headed the commission, condemned the confrontation saying it was far from the logical step towards resolving the conflict. He said he was optimistic that the Governor's commission would eventually find a solution to the problem. 

 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3358 of Monday February 03, 2025

 

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