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Death And Flight After Beheading Of Nigerian Leader
KANO, Nigeria, June 21 (News Agencies) - At least 10 people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes in central Nigeria after ethnic clashes following the grisly beheading of a traditional ruler last week, officials said Thursday.
The clashes - between people from the ethnic Tiv minority and the majority Hausa-speaking Azeri community - have swept through towns and villages in the southeast of Nasarawa, a large state bordering the capital Abuja, they said.
"At least ten people have been killed. A detachment of anti-riot police have been deployed to quell the attacks," Nasarawa government spokesman Rabiu Abdullahi told AFP, reached by telephone in the state capital, Lafia, from the northern city of Kano.
"Efforts are being made to restore calm, to provide a lasting solution. We have agreed to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to attend to the problems," he added.
Details of the clashes, which officials said took place over several days, were scarce.
But Abdullahi said most of those killed appeared to be from the Tiv community, a minority ethnic group in Nasarawa, in attacks carried out by Azeris.
The official said the clashes were "reprisal attacks on the Tivs in the Awe local government area" after the grisly June 12th beheading of a local Azeri traditional ruler and five others from Awe.
Musa Ibrahim was brutally assassinated last week by unknown assailants and ethnic Tivs were blamed. His driver, a guard and three others were killed with him.
Ibrahim, whose people call themselves Azeris, was a hated figure for the Tiv, blamed by their leaders for unrest in the area two months ago in which several Tivs were killed.
Tiv leaders also accused Ibrahim, a major local landowner, of encroaching on their land in the Awe area.
Relations between the Tiv and the Azeri have long been strained. Upsurges of unrest in the area have occurred many times in recent years, pushed by growing competition over land and age-old ethnic and political rivalries.
"At the moment, the Tiv are fleeing to Benue and Plateau states to escape attacks," Abdullahi said.
In Makurdi, the capital of Benue State, a Tiv-majority state bordering Nasarawa, deputy government spokesman Fidelis Agera said that over 3,000 displaced people had been received in the past few days.
"At present there are over 3,000 people in camps at Guma town. The government has set up a committee to take the wounded to hospital and evacuate the others to safer places," Agera told AFP.
Officials in Plateau State could not immediately be contacted to comment on the situation there.
Earlier, Benue State police spokesman Emmanuel Deebom told AFP the state government had set up a number of camps to shelter the displaced.
"They are taking refuge there. The governor and members of the state security council visited them Wednesday to assess their situation. We are providing maximum security for them to ensure that nobody from the other side attacks them," he said.
Dozens of homes were destroyed in the fighting, he added.
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