July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Thursday, July 19, 2001 - Web posted at 10:29:32 GMT

Over 100 killed in central Nigeria unrest

LAFIA - Police here have admitted that more than 100 people, including six policemen, have died in ethnic violence in central Nigeria in the past five weeks.

The toll was the first such official estimate of the scale of the violence.

Medical sources and witnesses have told AFP they believe more than 200 died, but government officials and the police had until yesterday declined to put a number to the death toll.

"Not less than 100 people, including six policemen, died in the ethnic unrest," Nasarawa State police command spokesman Sunday Peter Audu told AFP in Lafia, the state capital, yesterday.

Audu said that 53 people had been killed in a massacre in the village of Tudun Adabu and 11 had been killed in an incident in Keana local government.

Scores of others were killed in other incidents, but the exact toll was not known, he said.

Hundreds have meanwhile been injured in the violence which broke out June 12 between ethnic Tiv and around a dozen other ethnic groups, all speakers ofthe Hausa language.

The violence erupted after the killing of a prominent traditional ruler in the Azara community, for which the Tiv were blamed.

The Tiv are regarded by other ethnic groups in central Nigeria as recent "settlers" in the region, and relations between the Tiv and other ethnic groups have been strained for years.

- Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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