![]() The Middle Belt is a farming region, and the advancing Fulani-owned herds have increasingly encroached on croplands. Roots of conflictĪs the frontier of the Sahara Desert has moved southward, Fulani herds have gradually been pushed southward toward Nigeria’s “Middle Belt,” a handful of states straddling the pre-colonial line dividing Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north from its Christian south. The Fulani were early adopters of Islam, participating in holy wars, or jihads, in the 16th Century that established them as a dominant social and economic force in Western Africa. The centuries-old Fulani heritage is pastoral, organized primarily around nomadic herding of cattle, sheep and goats, though segments of the Fulani farm crops or live in urban areas. Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, is ethnic Fulani. They speak Fula languages as well as Hausa, English, French and Arabic. In Nigeria, the Fulani comprise “ the most populous and politically influential” of more than 250 ethnic groups in the country. ![]() ![]() ![]() They also can be found in Central African Republic and Egypt. They reside mostly in Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, and Niger. ![]() The Fula people, often described as the Fulani, are regarded as the world’s largest nomadic group: about 20 million people dispersed across Western Africa. ![]()
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