Mennonite Weekly Review

AKRON, Pa. — Mennonite Central Committee is planning a relief effort to respond to the needs of thousands of people forced from their homes by violence in the city of Jos and outlying areas of Nigeria’s Plateau State.

In the aftermath of violence in and around Jos, Nigeria, people line up for food distribution by an MCC partner organization, Emergency Preparedness Response Team. MCC is providing funds to EPRT to meet the needs of displaced people. — Photo by Ruth McDowall/MCC

Simmering tensions between Christians and Muslims in Jos erupted into violence on Jan. 17 and escalated through coming days. Buildings and homes burned, more than 400 people were killed and thousands were forced to flee.

MCC is providing an initial $17,390 to help meet the needs of displaced people, working through Emergency Preparedness Response Team, or EPRT, an interfaith network of 10 Nigerian organizations that help respond to and mediate conflicts in Plateau State.

“With the curfew and cold weather, it will be important to respond with immediate emergency items, such as food, blankets, mats and kitchen utensils,” said Willie Reimer, MCC’s director of food, disaster and material resources.

MCC, which has worked since 2001 to promote peacebuilding and to address tensions between groups of people including Christians and Muslims in Jos, was instrumental in helping form the EPRT in 2005.

MCC Nigeria representative Brenda Hartman-Souder said EPRT members have registered 34,000 internally displaced people and are working to coordinate a relief effort.

In the coming weeks, MCC will assess how to respond long-term. Last year, MCC helped sponsor a Plateau State Peace Practitioner’s Forum and plans to sponsor another one in March if possible. Hartman-Souder hopes the forum, with both Christian and Muslim participants, will yield ideas for a collaborative response to the bitter conflicts.

However, MCC regional peace adviser Gopar Tapkida of Abuja, Nigeria, warned that Muslim and Christian participants will first need to meet separately to debrief, talk together and grieve.

Christian-Muslim divide

Nigeria’s population is almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims, and Jos is between the predominantly Muslim north and the south, where Christianity and traditional religions are practiced.