Nigeria's farmer-herder conflict deadlier than Boko Haram

A new report says fighting between farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria has killed more people this year than attacks by Boko Haram Islamic extremists.

The International Crisis Group says the violence threatens to undermine national stability ahead of elections next year.

Thursday’s report says more than 1,300 Nigerians died from the farmer-herder conflicts in the first half of this year, while the death toll from the Nigeria-based Boko Haram’s insurgency was about 250.

The herders and farmers are fighting over land and water in Nigeria’s fertile central region.

The International Crisis Group, however, notes that the conflict “has taken on dangerous religious and ethnic dimensions.”

The herders are mainly Muslims from the Fulani ethnic group while the farmers are Christians from various minority ethnic groups.