SUMMARY

Clashes between the Eggon and the Gwandere broke out at the end of April 2014, reportedly following a dispute over farmland. The tension between the two groups was strongly connected to political competition leading up to the 2015 elections, focusing around the Gwandere governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura and his plans to run for a second term. Eggon groups argued for the need for an Eggon governor from 2015, and thus opposed the re-election of Al-Makura. The governor had, by some accounts, stated that he would give way to an Eggon candidate in 2015. These tensions connected to Eggon's perceptions of marginalization within the Nasarawa state since its creation in 1996. These perceptions played an important part in other conflicts involving Eggon within Nasarawa state, including Eggon – Fulani.

In July of 2014 an impeachment notice was filed against governor Al-Makura. The political tension between the two groups lead to renewed violence. In August, confrontations between Supporters of APC and Supporters of PDP also spilled over into violence between Eggon and Gwandere.

The Eggon - Gwandere conflict must also be viewed in the broader spectrum of the ethnic and religious non-state conflicts that have ravaged Nigeria in the past and intensified with the end of military rule, from 1999 and onwards. The conflicts throughout Nigeria have ethnic, political, economic, and religious components, which have become inextricably linked over time, pitting various groups and alliances of groups against each other along different dividing lines.

The non-state conflict between Eggon and Gwandere is first included in UCDP data in 2014. In April of that year violent clashes flared up in Nasarawa state, resulting in over 50 battle-related deaths.