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This documentary, produced by IFT Films, with USIP support, follows the story of Pastor James Wuye and Imam Mohammad Ashafa of Nigeria. Pastor James and Imam Ashafa are former members of competing militias in Nigeria who experienced personal transformations through their friendship and now work cooperatively to head the Inter-Faith Mediation Centre, supported by USIP. This documentary captures Pastor James and Imam Ashafa at work building relationships between Muslim and Christian clergy and leading training in conflict prevention, mediation, and reconciliation. To order the film, visit the IFT Film website: http://www.fltfilms.org.uk
The conflict in the Niger Delta has posed a fundamental challenge to the country's security for over a decade. What is the nature of the conflict? What steps can the government and international community take to restore peace to the region?
Latest from USIP on Nigeria
- September 17, 2009 | Resource
USIP's David Smock explores the factors underlying and perpetuating the militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In this report, based on an 11-day trip to Nigeria in late August 2009, Smock analyzes the prospects for the amnesty process, and why stronger political processes and economic development could help address the roots of the conflict there.
- August 11, 2009 | Resource
The trade of stolen oil, or “blood oil,” in Nigeria is fueling a long-running insurgency in the Niger Delta region that has claimed many lives. A USIP special report by Judith Burdin Asuni shows how the big business of blood oil poses a threat not only to the Nigerian state and the region, but to the international community as well.
- May 27, 2009 | In the Field
Senior Program Officers Nina Sughrue and Noor Kirdar continued USIP’s support for the international Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU), run by the Italian Caribinieri in Vicenza, Italy. CoESPU, which was established on March 1st 2005, stems from an Italian initiative, supported by the G8 countries to provide technical and financial assistance in order to improve global capacity for sustaining peace stability operations, particularly in African countries.
- April 16, 2009 | Resource
This documentary, produced by IFT Films, with USIP support, follows the story of Pastor James Wuye and Imam Mohammad Ashafa of Nigeria. Pastor James and Imam Ashafa are former members of competing militias in Nigeria who experienced personal transformations through their friendship and now work cooperatively to head the Inter-Faith Mediation Centre, supported by USIP. This documentary captures Pastor James and Imam Ashafa at work building relationships between Muslim and Christian clergy and leading training in conflict prevention, mediation, and reconciliation. To order the film, visit the IFT Film website: http://www.fltfilms.org.uk
Nigeria faces a host of internal problems that threaten its political legitimacy and stability: the growing violence in the oil rich Niger Delta; ethno-religious struggles; and political conflict that manifests in electoral violence and the struggle for political advantage. Nigeria’s size, its political importance and its oil reserves mean that a large-scale crisis in the country will have negative consequences far beyond its borders.
USIP is working to address the interrelated roots of Nigeria’s conflicts in all three arenas of conflict, with an emphasis on Niger Delta, which is the principal flash point and source of insecurity. USIP's current work in Nigeria seeks to:
- Support movement towards a peace agreement that resolves the principal conflicts in the Niger Delta;
- Increase the coordination between key actors in the Niger Delta;
- Strengthen Nigeria’s growing infrastructure of conflict management professionals and institutions.
- Contribute to progress towards reform of Nigeria’s electoral institutions and political culture;
- Increase capacities of religious institutions and actors to foster peaceful coexistence between Nigerian Muslims and Christians.
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USIP’s recent work on Nigeria includes:
- A workshop on how to conduct participatory peace processes, with a Niger Delta focus, conducted at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Abuja.
- Analyzing opportunities for using newly developed technology to decrease illegal oil bunkering, or "Blood Oil".
- Collaborating with the Interfaith Mediation Center to promote dialogue and reconciliation between Muslims and Christians in response to the outbreak of religious violence in November 2008 in the city of Jos, Plateau state.
- Collaborating with the African Center for Corporate responsibility to promote local capacity for resolving conflict between citizens, government and oil companies in the Niger Delta.