Nigeria: Religious divides worsen conflict during drought

Deutsche Welle · 🇩🇪 public Germany · Jun 02, 2026 · 866 words · By Okeri Ngutjinazo

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What to know about Nigeria: Religious divides worsen conflict during drought

Nigeria: Religious divides worsen conflict during drought June 2, 2026Across the Sahel region, where many Fulani herders have historically lived, rising temperatures, drought and desertification have reduced grazing land.

Claims checked 12

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center83%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

Now, pastoralists are increasingly driving their stock beyond traditional ranges and coming into conflict with sedentary farming communities.

Common ground

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center has drawn on over two decades of data from across Nigeria to examine links between drought patterns, conflict incidents, and the religious composition of local communities.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Nigeria: Religious divides worsen conflict during drought?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that violence linked to Fulani militants had caused more deaths among religious communities over the past year than attacks by insurgent groups or criminal gangs?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-how-religious-divides-worsen-conflict-during-droug…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 12 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5

schedule Pending 2

info Single Source 2

help Insufficient Evidence 2

verified Verified By Reference 1

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Claim 1: “violence linked to Fulani militants had caused more deaths among religious communities over the past year than attacks by insurgent groups or criminal gangs.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 2: “Muslim respondents were more likely to cite droughts and competition for resources as the cause for conflict.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the general study is corroborated, the specific finding that Muslim respondents cited droughts/resources as the cause is not explicitly detailed in the provided evidence snippets, though it is the logical inverse of the Christian findings mentioned in the WZB study. The provided search results for this specific claim are generic survey tools and not the study results.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Abba Kabir Yusuf (born 5 January 1963) is a Nigerian politician who has served as governor of Kano State since May 2023. He served as commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport in the Kano State E…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abba_Kabir_Yusuf

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ahmad Abubakar Gumi is a Nigerian Islamic cleric and former military officer. He serves as the current Mufti and Mufassir at the Kaduna central mosque Sultan Bello.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Abubakar_Gumi

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Kaduna (Hausa: Jihar Kaduna, جىِهَر كَدُنا; مدينة كدونا; Fula: Leydi Kaduna, 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤣𞤵𞤲𞤢; Tyap: Si̱tet Ka̱duna) is a state in the northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The state capital is its nam…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaduna_State

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 3: “Researchers used a survey in Kaduna State, north-western Nigeria, to establish that Christian respondents were more likely to attribute conflict over grazing lands to religious causes, and harbor greater distrust of Muslim Fulani.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources (WZB and the associated research paper) confirm that a survey in Kaduna State found Christian respondents were more likely to attribute grazing conflicts to religion and express more distrust toward the Fulani/Muslims.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Christianity in Nigeria represents one of several religious traditions in the country, including Islam and Traditional African religions. Christianity arrived to Nigeria in the 15th century through Au…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Nigeria

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Religious violence in Nigeria refers to Christian–Muslim strife in Nigeria tracing back to 1953. The present religious violence in Nigeria is dominated by the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to est…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence_in_Nigeria

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 4: “The Fulani are a primarily Muslim cattle-owning people that have historically lived across what is now Nigeria, Niger, Mali, and other West African nations.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia explicitly confirms that the Fula/Fulani are an ethnic group in the Sahara, Sahel, and West Africa, inhabiting countries including Nigeria, Niger, and Mali, and are known for cattle-rearing.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Northern Nigeria (or Arewancin Nijeriya) was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, with independent customs, foreign relations and security…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Region,_Nigeria

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in the Sahara, Sahel, and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_people

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Hausa–Fulani are people of mixed Hausa and Fulani origin. They are primarily found in the Northern region of Nigeria, most of whom speak a variant of Hausa or Fula or both as their first language. The…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa–Fulani

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 5: “at least 1.3 million people in the Middle Belt forced into overcrowded and insecure camps.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 6: “It says an "estimated 30,000 Fulani militants" likely operate across Nigeria.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the estimate of 30,000 Fulani militants.

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Claim 7: “He cited the introduction of Sharia law in parts of northern Nigeria, resistance in regions such as Nigeria's Middle Belt, and the rise of the jihadist group Boko Haram as factors that had deepened mistrust between communities.”

CORROBORATED

DW News and other sources confirm that the introduction of Sharia law (1999-2001), resistance in the Middle Belt, and the rise of Boko Haram are factors linked to deepened communal mistrust and conflict.

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web search NEUTRAL — Jun 8, 2026 · The Boko Haram ideology grew out of the soil of the 1999–2001 introduction of Sharia criminal law in 12 northern states — a clear violation of ...
https://www.facebook.com/councilonforeignrelations/posts/bok…

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web search NEUTRAL — Jun 2, 2026 · He cited the introduction of Sharia law in parts of northern Nigeria, resistance in regions such as Nigeria's Middle Belt, and the rise of ...
https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-how-religious-divides-worsen-c…

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web search NEUTRAL — Dec 20, 2010 · The apparent relative calm that much of northern Nigeria had enjoyed for several years was broken by the violent emergence of Boko Haram in 2009 ...
https://www.crisisgroup.org/sites/default/files/168-northern…

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Claim 8: “religious tensions have intensified since the late 1990s.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of dictionary definitions of 'religion' and 'religious' rather than data on the intensification of tensions in northern Nigeria since the 1990s.

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web search NEUTRAL — Religion is a range of social - cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, ethics, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, or organizations, that genera…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion

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web search NEUTRAL — New religious movements Religions that cannot be classed as either world religions or traditional folk religions, and are usually recent in their inception. Non-cargo cults are generally excluded from…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spirit…

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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago · The meaning of RELIGIOUS is relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity. How to use religious in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religious

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Claim 9: “Many in Nigeria have adopted the Hausa language, and used to be far more nomadic than today.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results confirm that many Fulani people have adopted the Hausa language and culture, and Wikipedia mentions the 'Hausa-Fulani' mixed origin group.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Hausa Kingdoms (Masarautun Hausa), also known as Hausaland (Kasar Hausa), was a collection of states ruled by the Hausa people, before the Fulani jihads. It was situated between the Niger River and La…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa_Kingdoms

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Hausa (autonyms for singular: Bahaushe (m), Bahaushiya (f); plural: Hausawa and general: Hausa; exonyms: Ausa; Ajami: مُتَنٜىٰنْ هَوْسَا / هَوْسَاوَا) are an ethnic group native to West Africa. Th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa_people

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 10: “Across the Sahel region, where many Fulani herders have historically lived, rising temperatures, drought and desertification have reduced grazing land.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm that rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and droughts in the Sahel region have led to land degradation and threats to food and water security.

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web search NEUTRAL — Across Africa's semiarid Sahel region, temperatures have risen faster than the global average, resulting in severe threats to water access, food security, and ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266727822…

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web search NEUTRAL — Feb 12, 2025 ... Rising temperatures and prolonged droughts have severely impacted areas such as the Murray-Darling Basin, one of Australia's most important ...
https://earth.org/desertification-and-climate-change-whats-t…

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web search NEUTRAL — Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and frequent droughts alter habitats and reduce ecosystem resilience. ... agricultural land due to drought and ...
https://spatialagent.org/SahelLandscapes/landdegdrivers.html

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Claim 11: “The WZB Berlin Social Science Center has drawn on over two decades of data from across Nigeria to examine links between drought patterns, conflict incidents, and the religious composition of local communities.”

CORROBORATED

Two independent web sources (Phys.org and a research paper/PDF) confirm that the WZB Berlin Social Science Center conducted a study on the role of droughts and religious cleavages in pastoralist conflict in Nigeria.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jutta Allmendinger (born 26 September 1956) is a German sociologist who has been serving as professor of educational sociology and labor market research at Humboldt University since 2007. She was pres…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jutta_Allmendinger

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (21 July 1912 – 1 November 1992) was a Czech social and political scientist. He was a professor at MIT, Yale University and Harvard University, as well as Director of WZB Berlin …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Deutsch

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The WZB Berlin Social Science Center (German: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB), also known by its German initials WZB, is an internationally renowned research institute for the so…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZB_Berlin_Social_Science_Cent…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 12: “The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has identified armed Fulani groups as being among the most prominent non-state actors behind religious violence in Nigeria.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to support or refute the USCIRF's identification of armed Fulani groups.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.