Setback to Peace Process in Nigeria

The visit by a well-respected Mennonite peace mediator to the town of Wukari, Nigeria — the scene of violence over the last year — had to be cancelled due to further conflict in the region.

"This is a major setback for the peace process and for the area in general," says Peter Vander Meulen, coordinator of the CRC's Office of Social Justice.

OSJ, with the strong support of CRC World Renew and Christian Reformed World Missions staff, has been facilitating/supporting a potential peace process in Wukari with the CRC’s  former mission churches — and now partner denominations — in the Eastern Middlebelt region, says Vander Meulen.

"Hizkias Assefa, our long-term consulting partner in the area was set to visit in early May. That visit was canceled by an eruption of violence in the formerly peaceful town of Takum largely unrelated to the conflicts we were concerned about," says Vander Meulen in an email.

Vander Meulen says he learned of the cancellation from Bulus Ali, the CRC’s primary link in the area and a member of  the Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation Committee (PJRF), a group of Nigeria church leaders instrumental in bringing peace to the Nigerian city of Takum in the early 2000s. Ali has worked in the past for World Renew.

Assefa played an important role in The Takum Peace Process, begun in the 1990s and culminating in the 2006 Peace Agreement, which was supported by five mission organizations related to the then Reformed Ecumenical Council and the CRC. Takum is located in the same region as Wukari.

The PJRC specifically asked last year if Assefa could visit Wukari because people in that region trust him and the earlier process was effective, says Vander Meulen, who made an initial visit to the area in December to assess the situation.

"The canceling of Hizkias's trip and the costs OSJ still incurred make it difficult to do this again anytime soon — unless funds are found from extra-budgetary sources."

In the letter to Vander Meulen, Bulus Ali says more than 30 people were killed this month in an outbreak of violence centered in a community near Takum.

"Since then Mobile Police have been deployed to the area and things seem to be calming down.

"The effects of these disturbances are far reaching. Assefa's visit had to be cancelled. The Reformed Combined Secondary School's 50th anniversary had to be postponed. Farming activities within the affected area has been greatly reduced."

The Reformed Combined Secondary School has strong historical ties to the CRC.

In his email, Vander Meulen asks prayer for two things:

1. Wisdom and courage for Bulus Ali and the church leaders of the three Reformed denominations who are deeply committed to the peace process.
2. Strength of purpose  "to those of us — and our institutions — that are supporting their peace-building activities so that we stick with this important 'grace roots' force resisting those who would take Taraba and Benue states back to chaos and violence."