SUMMARY

The Hausa people are a large ethnic community spread over a vast area of Africa. The community has been involved in non-state conflicts with other ethnic communities, primarily in Nigeria.

The Hausa are a Muslim people who speak the Hausa language, residing mainly in Nigeria and Niger but being found as far north as Sudan and Chad and as far west as the Ivory Coast. Nigeria is the epicentre of the Hausa people and the group has been a dominant player in Nigerian politics since the country reached independence. Culturally the group has become intertwined with the Fulani group, the two sometimes being referred to jointly as ‘Hausa-Fulani’ and with some members not differentiating between these two labels.

The Hausa and the Hausa-Fulani are most numerous in Nigeria’s Muslim north, the comparatively poorer region of the country. Although the group is much too large to be characterised as being wholly ‘nomadic’ the Hausa, as compared to many other ethnic groups in Nigeria, have a high proportion of cattle herders in the agricultural sector and tradesmen in the business sector.

In conflicts with other ethnic groups the Hausa appear to not deploy a formally organised militia, but instead rely on more loosely organised groupings to carry out violence against its opponents.

The Hausa people have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.