Farmer-pastoralist conflicts on the Jos Plateau, central Nigeria: security responses of local vigilantes and the Nigerian state

The Jos Plateau is an ethno-linguistically and religiously plural part of north-central Nigeria that has experienced both coexistence and conflict between Muslims and Christians. The city of Jos and its rural hinterland are widely represented as flashpoints of collective violence in Nigeria. The specificities of inter-group relations, conflict and insecurity in the rural areas seldom receive as much attention as the urban disputes. This article argues that to understand the sources of localised armed conflict, it is necessary to analyse how forms of ‘insecurity’ and narratives of ‘threat’ are articulated in cultural, social and material terms. These vary between urban and rural areas, though there are also many cross-cutting issues. The Plateau conflicts have produced contrasting discourses from Muslims and Christians and from farmers and pastoralists who have been engaged in armed conflict in some northern parts of the Jos Plateau. The ways in which the violence is understood and its different local impacts shapes both the Plateau State government’s involvement in the conflicts and local participation and reactions.