By Tiger Rifkin
The Akan say, “When blood waters the soil, nothing grows but sorrow.” But here’s what they didn’t say: When we call systematic massacre “conflict,” we don’t just mislead—we enable.
This weekend, over 150 civilians were killed in Benue State, Nigeria. Families were burned alive. Children executed in their sleep. Villages were wiped off the map.
And yet, major headlines—from the BBC, Al Jazeera, and even Nigerian national outlets—described it as follows:
“Farmer-herder clashes.”
“Ethnic tensions.”
“Resource-based violence.”
The Language of Denial
Let’s break it down:
- What happened: Coordinated night raids. Homes torched with people inside. Entire villages reduced to ashes.
- What media called it: “Communal clashes,” “herder-farmer disputes,” “climate conflict.”
- What it is: Targeted ethnic cleansing—wrapped in sanitized language and served to the public as policy-neutral events.
This linguistic anesthesia erases intent. It dulls outrage. It makes mass murder sound negotiable.
The pattern is clear.
This is not a one-off incident—it’s the latest in a brutal pattern:
- 2016, Agatu Massacre: 500 killed
- 2023, Plateau State: 200+ killed during Christmas attacks
- April 2024, Plateau: 40 killed
- June 2025, Benue: 150+ killed
Each time, the same cycle.
Attack. Condemn. Investigate. Forget.
Victims are primarily Christian farming communities, Tiv, Idoma, and others. The attackers are predominantly Fulani herders, pushed south by climate change, but armed and coordinated far beyond survival.
This is not about pastureland anymore. It’s about territorial conquest. Demographic reshaping. Religious and ethnic targeting.
Why the World Stays Silent
- Diplomatic convenience: “Conflict” can be mediated. “Genocide” demands intervention.
- Economic interest: Nigeria is oil-rich and geopolitically strategic—too big to shame.
- African complicity: Our leaders use soft language to avoid hard truths. “Conflict” shares blame. “Ethnic cleansing” demands action.
Tiger’s Roar: Stop the Euphemisms, Face the Truth
Enough with the elegant eulogies and vague condemnations.
This is not a conflict. This is calculated atrocity.
To President Tinubu: Investigations don’t resurrect the dead. Deploy absolute security or admit your government can’t protect its people.
To African leaders: Every silence after slaughter makes you part of the machinery of death.
To the international community: When oil pipelines are threatened, drones appear in 24 hours. But when it’s poor farmers? You issue press releases.
We must call this what it is: An ethnic and religious purge, disguised as communal tension.
What’s at Stake
Benue isn’t just bleeding, it’s starving. Nigeria’s food basket, home to the nation’s yam, rice, cassava, and maize, is being turned into a graveyard: burned crops, displaced farmers, orphaned children.
This is not just a human rights emergency. It’s a looming food security disaster.
What Must Be Done
- Enforce the 2021 anti-open grazing law not on paper, but in villages.
- Invest in modern ranching systems to remove the logic of invasion.
- Hold attackers accountable publicly, visibly, and swiftly.
- Recognize this as climate-fueled conflict escalation with ethnic dimensions, not a local misunderstanding.
Final Word: Language Shapes Policy
If this happened in Norway or Canada, it would be called what it is: a mass atrocity. But here, we hide under euphemisms.
If we keep calling this “clashes,” we’ll keep enabling genocide.
Africa must reclaim its truth-telling voice before the next village is burned, and all that remains is silence and soot.
Tiger Rifkin is a Pan-African storyteller and strategic communicator who refuses to sugarcoat African realities.