Want to Prevent Atrocities? Think Locally. Act Locally.

New research shows the value of early warning systems to stop conflict

Peace making handshake via unspash

By Katie Smith, Global Policy Specialist at Search for Common Ground.

When I first travelled to the Middle Belt of Nigeria, I listened to harrowing tales of murdered family members, physical injury, sexual violence, displacement, and hopelessness. In the years that have passed, these stories have only continued to stack up. Estimates of those killed in communal violence in this region over the past five years vary from 5,000 to well over 25,000 - but the numbers only tell part of the story. They don’t tell the story of a small village in Benue state, where gunmen stormed a Catholic Church during mass, shooting two priests and 17 parishioners to death. They don’t tell the story of the 14 year old Muslim boy who was beheaded by a mob in Plateau state in retaliation to previous attacks suspected to be committed by Fulani herdsmen. To date, these atrocities and many more like them have been allowed to continue and expand – leaving death and destruction a…