Publikation

The assessment has been commissioned to provide information on the perception that partners of EED in Northern Nigeria have of  the relation between people of different faiths. Most of the organizations are closely related to Christian churches, and work in regions where conflicts and sometimes even sudden eruptions of violence are common. In many tense situations, domestic and foreign observers regard the affiliation to communities confessing different faiths as a central element of dividing people and in the promotion of conflict escalation.

Gradually, issues of conflict transformation and peace-building have become important in the current approaches of the organizations visited. (…) Their experiences of working at community level have shown them that the roots and dynamics of conflicts are mainly related to different interests regarding the access to natural resources, public facilities and political power. Nevertheless, in their work they have perceived that the management and transformation of these conflicts of interest also require a closer look at ethnic and religious identities. Tensions resulting from tribal ore religious differences (between Christians and Muslims or between Christian denominations) often aggravate a conflict, in particular when these are used to mobilize sectors of a community for political purposes.