Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) yesterday banned night grazing nationwide as part of measures to curb the perennial clashes between herders and Farmers.

National Secretary of MACBAN Mr Baba Uthman told journalists after its Annual General Meeting yesterday in Damaturu, Yobe State capital that the decision would become an instruction that would be communicated to every member of the group, including those at the grassroots.

“This is a decision that has been taken by the highest decision-making body of the association. As it is taken here, it will go down the ladder down to our members at the grassroots.

“They will be informed and sensitised concerning it,” Uthman said.

MACBAN also announced that a ban has been placed on grazing by minors and hawking of milk by teenage girls.

According to the group, these are the causes of cultural abuse and poses dangers to the underage.

According to 2018 Global Terrorism Index (GTI), nearly 1,700 violent deaths were attributed to Fulani herdsmen in attacks carried out between January and September 2018.

GTI, which measures the impact of terrorism across the world, estimated in its new report that Fulani herders have killed six times more people than those killed by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, in 2018.

The report hinged the killing on the struggle for land and water between farmers and nomadic cattle herders.

“While deaths committed by Fulani extremists decreased following the peak of 1,169 deaths in 2014, violence from the group in 2018 is expected to surpass that peak. Nearly 1,700 violent deaths have been attributed to the Fulani Ethnic Militia from January to September 2018. An estimated 89 percent of those killed were civilians.

“Seventy-eight percent of the deaths committed by Fulani extremists since 2010 have been carried out as armed assaults,” the report added.

Vanguard