|
In Nigeria, Hundreds Killed, Thousands Flee, And "Nobody Cares"
LAFIA, Nigeria, July 17
(IslamOnline & News Agencies) - While sitting and cooking in a camp for displaced people set up in central Nigeria, Amina Dambatta, 32, believes she is probably a widow but is not sure, reports said on Tuesday.
She and her three children have had no news of her husband since her town was attacked last month.
Her problem is worsened by the fact that the conflict she is fleeing from is taking place in Muslim majority Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, situated on the West African coast.
Neither authorities here, nor in the outside world, seem to care very much.
Dambatta is one of about 500 women and children living in the camp set up by state authorities in Lafia, the capital of the Nasarawa state in central Nigeria.
Thousands more men, women and children are also living in camps set up in the neighboring states of Plateau and Benue.
But, tens of thousands more are living in the homes of friends and relatives, authorities and aid groups having failed to do anything to help them.
According to the Nigerian Red Cross, more than 50,000 people have fled their homes in Nasarawa since mid-June. Another 25,000 have fled related fighting in the Taraba state and 22,000 more escaped to the north due to religious clashes in the Bauchi state.
The conflict erupted on June 12 between the ethnic Tiv people and around a dozen other ethnic groups. In essence, it is a dispute over land and politics between the Tiv and groups who see the Tiv as recent "settlers" here.
Police in Lafia admitted on Tuesday that more than 100 people, including six policemen, have died in the clashes since June 12.
However, medical sources and witnesses told the French news agency, AFP, that they believe more than 200 have died. Others put the numbers in the "hundreds".
"There is no doubt that if this was happening somewhere else in the world, in the Middle East or in the Balkans, almost anywhere, people would be rushing in to assist the displaced and stop the killing," said an aid worker with an international organization.
"As it is there is nothing. Not even the media is interested," he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The Nigerian Red Cross is the only organization, so far, that has done much of anything for the displaced by distributing some food and blankets. Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), or Doctors without Borders, also distributed some medical supplies and the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, has sent a team to the area.
But, displaced people here say they have seen too little help.
"We have had almost nothing," said Yahuza Agbo, 41, a farmer from Kadarko town in Keana, who lives in the camp with his wife and four children.
To make matters worse, they cannot return home and fend for themselves because their security is not assured.
"It is not that I do not like to go back to my place. The point is I cannot go back now unless there is security provided, or else I risk being killed," Agbo said.
Nasarawa State police command spokesman, Peter Audu, told AFP on Sunday that the government, police and community leaders were making efforts toward confidence building measures, in the hopes of providing security.
State television and radio are broadcasting appeals for calm. But, the effort remains minimal.
"It is like nobody cares," said Agbo.
The spark for the violence came during the second half of last month, following an incident on June 19 in a bus park in Tafawa Balewa, which lies about 400 kilometers (240 miles) northeast of the capital, Abuja.
Muslims form the majority population in Tafawa Balewa, the hometown of a former prime minister, and come mainly from the Hausa and Jarawa ethnic groups.
The minority Christians, who belong mainly to the Sayawa ethnic group, were angered by last month's introduction of the Islamic law code, the Shari'a, which is favored by Muslims.
On June 19, a Muslim bus driver insisted that his male and female passengers, some of whom were Christians, be segregated into different areas of the bus.
This sparked a riot by the Christians who said it meant that Islamic law was being imposed on them.
In the days that followed, dozens of mosques and homes were burned down and several churches were attacked.
|
