In Kaduna, community peacebuilding offers way to stop disputes from becoming violent 

When two younger individuals started arguing throughout a community exercise in Kaduna, Mistura Hussain didn’t instantly attempt to decide who was proper. Instead, the 18-year-old

Kaduna State University pupil listened to either side, allow them to clarify what had occurred, and tried to hold the disagreement from becoming private.

The argument finally ended with no struggle.

For Ms Hussain, the incident was a sensible check of one thing she had learnt throughout a peacebuilding coaching organised by the Muslim Peace Network (MPN): {that a} disagreement doesn’t have to change into a battle, and a battle doesn’t have to change into violent.

“Before, we would argue over simple conversations, and it could become personal,” she mentioned.

That type of intervention might seem small, however in Kaduna State, the place disputes over land, political pursuits, assets, identification and faith have repeatedly contributed to wider violence, peacebuilding organisations argue that stopping escalation can start with how individuals deal with seemingly abnormal disagreements.

Nigeria has for many years struggled with communal, ethnic and spiritual conflicts which have claimed lives, displaced households and deepened distrust between communities. A report by the International Crisis Group recognized political manipulation, poverty, unemployment, and ethnic and spiritual rivalries amongst elements which have fuelled conflicts in northern Nigeria. Kaduna has additionally skilled repeated interreligious violence linked to political, land and historic tensions, in accordance to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The scale of violence stays important. Between January 2024 and August 2025, the European Union Agency for Asylum, citing ACLED information, recorded 475 safety incidents in Kaduna leading to 951 fatalities. The incidents included violence in opposition to civilians, battles, riots, and explosions or distant violence.

But a few of Kaduna’s worst episodes additionally present how a dispute over a selected challenge can tackle wider ethnic or non secular meanings.

In 1992, for instance, a dispute over the relocation of a market in Zangon-Kataf escalated into violent confrontations between Hausa and Atyap communities. Rotimi T. Suberu, a Nigerian political scientist and scholar of ethnic battle, documented the disaster in his work on ethnic minority conflicts in Nigeria. According to his account, primarily based on official estimates, 95 individuals have been killed, 252 have been injured, whereas 133 homes and 26 farmlands have been destroyed. The violence later unfold to different elements of Kaduna State.

A dispute over a market didn’t stay a dispute over a market.

Human Rights Watch later famous that the 1992 disaster was initially sparked by disagreement over the relocation of the market earlier than the violence took on wider ethnic and spiritual dimensions.

The lesson is one which peacebuilding practitioners say stays related: disagreements can change into extra harmful when they’re interpreted by means of present community divisions, rumours and distrust.

That risk stays a priority in communities resembling Kakuri in Kaduna South Local Government Area, which has beforehand been recognized as a Kaduna community the place non secular and different tensions might change into flashpoints.

But Kakuri was not outlined solely by battle.

According to Hussain Makanjuola, Executive Director of MPN, Muslim and Christian youths within the community had been enjoying soccer collectively as a part of efforts to strengthen their relationships.

Mr Makanjuola mentioned these relationships have been examined after anger unfold following the killing of Deborah Samuel, a Christian pupil who was crushed and burned to loss of life by fellow college students at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State on May 12, 2022. She had criticised classmates for posting Islamic non secular messages in a WhatsApp group meant for tutorial discussions, with some college students decoding her feedback about Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.

He added that the incident turned a supply of anger amongst some Christian youths in Kakuri, who started retaliating in opposition to Muslim youths, and three individuals have been killed earlier than safety personnel intervened.

The episode confirmed how a disagreement or misunderstanding, even when it begins exterior a community, can rapidly deepen present tensions and threaten relationships inside it, Mr Makanjuola famous. It additionally highlighted why peacebuilding efforts that construct belief, communication and relationships earlier than a disaster can assist communities handle tensions and forestall disagreements from escalating into violence.

In one other case, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Nigeria) reported {that a} Community-Based Reconciliation Committee in Kakuri helped resolve a feud between two households after the disagreement turned severe sufficient to contain safety authorities. The households finally reconciled following mediation.

These experiences level to the house community peacebuilding seeks to occupy: serving to individuals recognise tensions, open dialogue and resolve disagreements earlier than they purchase wider non secular or communal meanings.

Building relationships earlier than battle 

Against this background, MPN has spent the previous a number of years working with younger individuals, non secular leaders, girls and community leaders in Kaduna.

Established in 2020 and primarily based in Kaduna, the organisation makes use of peace schooling, interfaith dialogue, community mediation, and grassroots engagement to encourage residents, college students, and spiritual, community, and conventional leaders to tackle disagreements earlier than they turn into violence.

Its actions embrace the Community Initiatives to Promote Peace (CIPP), Peace Clubs in faculties and a community of Community Peace Officers working throughout six native authorities areas.

The organisation’s work isn’t restricted to telling contributors to “live in peace”. It focuses on constructing belief and giving individuals the boldness to tackle issues earlier than they change into sources of wider rigidity.

During its workshops, contributors study battle prevention, tolerance, communication, and peaceable problem-solving. They study to hear to opposing views, categorical their considerations with out blaming others, and work with individuals from totally different non secular and social backgrounds.

Some classes use sensible group workout routines during which contributors encounter disagreements and are anticipated to resolve them by means of dialogue fairly than confrontation. The workout routines enable contributors to practise the communication and problem-solving abilities they might want when disagreements come up exterior the coaching.

Between 2021 and 2025, MPN mentioned its Peace Education programme reached greater than 3,700 college students in seven personal faculties in Kaduna, the place it established Peace Clubs. The organisation additionally mentioned its Community Initiatives to Promote Peace programme reached about 10 communities.

The Peace Clubs give college students an area to talk about variations, study communication and conflict-resolution abilities, and work together with college students from backgrounds totally different from their very own.

Rather than studying about non secular tolerance solely as an concept, college students are inspired to practise listening, speaking, and dealing with individuals whose non secular identities might differ from theirs.

MPN has additionally labored with non secular academics and community leaders.

In January 2023, the organisation organised a coaching for Arabic and Islamic academics in Kaduna on peacebuilding and stopping non secular extremism in faculties.

Mr Makanjuola mentioned MPN performed 12 coaching workshops between 2021 and 2025 on totally different areas of peacebuilding, together with sensitisation of spiritual and community leaders, girls and youth engagement, and battle prevention, including that greater than 600 individuals have been educated.

The organisation’s Community Peace Officers function throughout Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Chikun, Kagarko, Zaria and Igabi native authorities areas, serving as community-based contacts who can establish tensions, encourage dialogue and join disputing events with individuals who can intervene.

The concept is easy: intervene whereas a disagreement remains to be small.

From classes to on a regular basis relationships 

The modifications MPN is making an attempt to encourage are usually not solely about settling disputes after they happen. They are additionally about making it simpler for individuals to work together earlier than a disaster occurs.

Maryam Ahmed, a 17-year-old Muslim pupil at Malika International School, mentioned the peace schooling actions modified the way she interacted with college students from different non secular backgrounds.

Her expertise factors to one other facet of peacebuilding: lowering the space that may exist between younger individuals due to non secular identification. Instead of approaching college students from one other religion primarily by means of assumptions about their faith, the actions gave her alternatives to work together with them instantly and construct relationships by means of shared experiences.

Other contributors equally described becoming extra snug speaking with individuals from totally different faiths and backgrounds.

A 26-year-old Christian pupil at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Monica Ishaya mentioned the MPN coaching modified her notion of individuals from one other faith, permitting her to see them as buddies fairly than as individuals outlined by non secular variations.

“I became more confident interacting with people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds,” she mentioned.

Mariya Ahmed Tijjani, an MPN official who first participated within the organisation’s actions as a beneficiary earlier than becoming a member of its workers, mentioned dialogue challenged a few of the assumptions she had about individuals from different non secular backgrounds.

She mentioned her expertise confirmed her that folks might disagree on faith and nonetheless preserve friendships and work collectively.

The strategy extends past college students.

MPN additionally engages non secular and community leaders to assist tackle misunderstandings, encourage dialogue, and use their affect inside their communities to stop disagreements from becoming wider non secular or communal disputes.

Misbahudeen Muhammad Raji, an Imam (a Muslim non secular chief) with the Nasirudeen Society of Kaduna State who has participated in MPN actions, mentioned non secular misunderstanding, ignorance and inflammatory pursuits might contribute to rigidity.

He recalled intervening when two bike riders from totally different non secular backgrounds exchanged abusive phrases in Rumi. Rather than letting the disagreement change into a spiritual challenge, he introduced the events collectively, inspired them to hear to one another, and helped settle the matter.

In Chikun, Christian girls’s chief Anna Yakub additionally recalled an incident during which a disagreement between community members started to create rigidity alongside non secular traces. She mentioned community members intervened, introduced these concerned collectively and opened a dialogue earlier than the disagreement might escalate.

The examples illustrate how the teachings from peacebuilding actions can transfer past coaching rooms into on a regular basis disputes in communities.

John Akor, senior pastor (a Christian church chief) of God’s Love Auditorium Church in Kaduna and a facilitator in a few of MPN’s programmes, mentioned non secular leaders might play an essential position due to the affect they’ve over their congregations.

Their involvement means peacebuilding isn’t confined to workshops. Participants can take the teachings into locations the place disagreements happen, together with faculties, non secular areas, households and neighbourhoods.

The strategy can be according to the broader expertise of peacebuilding organisations in northern Nigeria. A USAID analysis of an interfaith peacebuilding programme discovered that coaching, dialogue and joint actions created alternatives for Muslims and Christians to work together, construct relationships and enhance perceptions of each other.

More lately, the United Nations reported that an Early Warning and Early Response system working in Kaduna and Katsina had recorded 126 circumstances since its launch in August 2023, with 53 circumstances resolved inside three months. The system depends on native collaboration to establish and reply to tensions earlier than they turn into bigger conflicts. The United Nations mentioned the mechanism had additionally strengthened communities’ and native authorities peace committees’ potential to detect and reply to potential conflicts at an early stage.

The expertise of AbdulPatai Adekunle Badmus, an official of the Interfaith Mediation Centre who attended some MPN workshops, offers one other indication of how such interventions can affect behaviour.

Mr Badmus recalled a younger participant from one of many organisation’s Peace Clubs who initially had little interplay with Muslim college students however later turned extra snug round them and shaped friendships.

Such modifications matter as a result of peacebuilding isn’t solely about what occurs when violence has already began. It can be about altering how individuals relate to each other earlier than a disaster happens.

Mr Badmus mentioned the results of such work can change into extra seen over time as contributors carry the relationships and attitudes they turn into their faculties, properties and communities.

Samson Auta, a battle decision knowledgeable and co-executive director of the Interfaith Mediation Centre, mentioned community peacebuilding might strengthen the flexibility of individuals to establish tensions, talk throughout variations and search mediation earlier than disputes change into violent.

He defined that conflicts have been typically formed by a number of elements, making it essential for communities to have individuals who perceive how to recognise tensions and reply early.

Mr Auta mentioned MPN’s peacebuilding actions confirmed how battle might be mitigated on the community degree, however attaining stronger, longer-lasting outcomes would require long-term dedication fairly than short-term interventions.

Similarly, Obi Onyeigwe, an impartial peacebuilding knowledgeable, mentioned efficient peacebuilding programmes might construct relationships that proceed past a single workshop, significantly when communities take possession of mechanisms for resolving their very own issues.

Beyond the work, assets stay a problem 

While MPN has expanded its peacebuilding actions throughout faculties and communities, restricted assets have made it tough for the organisation to attain everybody who may gain advantage.

The organisation mentioned it has continued a few of its peacebuilding actions with restricted funding, counting on partnerships and the dedication of community members and volunteers.

The problem turned significantly clear when the Kaduna State Ministry of Education approached the organisation about increasing its Peace Clubs in public faculties throughout the state. The request raised the potential of taking the peace schooling mannequin past the seven personal faculties the place the organisation had established Peace Clubs.

But MPN couldn’t lengthen the programme to all public faculties as a result of it lacked the assets required for such an growth.

The organisation has to this point established Peace Clubs in seven personal faculties and reached greater than 3,700 college students by means of its Peace Education programme. Extending the mannequin to a whole bunch of public faculties would require extra funding, personnel and sustained assist.

The similar constraint impacts its work with Community Peace Officers and community leaders, limiting how far the organisation can lengthen actions that rely closely on native presence and common engagement.

Community peacebuilding can not exchange safety operations or tackle all of the financial and political causes of violence.

But for the individuals taking part in these programmes, the flexibility to recognise rigidity, hear to opposing views and intervene earlier than a disagreement turns into a bigger confrontation offers one other layer of safety.

For Mistura Hussain, the lesson is now a part of how she approaches disagreements. What as soon as may need regarded like a confrontation can now be a possibility to hear.

And in communities the place a small quarrel can typically purchase a a lot bigger that means, that change might start with one thing so simple as studying that disagreement doesn’t have to finish in violence.

This reporting was produced beneath the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) SAIL+ Programme Fellowship.