Deaths rise in Lagos clashes, thousands flee

Ethnic fighting in Lagos has killed dozens of people and forced thousands to seek refuge in military barracks and other safe places, witnesses said. The clashes pitted local Yorubas against Hausa-speakers from northern Nigeria. The clashes, which broke out on Saturday at Idi Araba in the city's Mushin slum district following a minor dispute, continued until Monday despite the deployment of troops and policemen to quell the violence. "The police had told us to remain indoors, that there was a curfew on Sunday night but surprisingly that same night we were attacked," Salisu Abdulrahman, a Hausa resident of Idi Araba, told IRIN on Tuesday. "This morning I had to take my wife and children to the Abalti Barracks for safety." Gangs of rival youths, armed with shotguns, swords, bottles, bows and arrows fought street battles on Monday morning in several northern suburbs of the city, still recovering from the devastating effects of explosions at an ammunitions dump that killed more than 1,000 a week before. Idi Araba and other areas including Fadeyi, Obanikoro and Yaba market, were littered with corpses. Several houses were burnt. Joint police and military patrols restored a semblance of control by late Monday afternoon after shootouts with gangs of fighters. "I have counted no less than 50 dead bodies since we began our patrols this morning," one police sergeant told IRIN. "It’s really a bloody business." Police sources said the situation worsened with the involvement of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) militia, which purports to defend Yoruba interests. The OPC has been blamed in the past for similar ethnic clashes in Nigeria’s southwest region. Police said hoodlums also looted shops and robbed people. Red Cross officials said more than 150 people were given first aid treatment, while 57 others considered seriously wounded were taken to hospital. Residents of the affected areas fled in their thousands with the few belongings they could carry to police stations, military barracks or the homes of relatives in more peaceful areas of the city. Many northerners left Lagos on Monday for their home regions, raising fears that there might be reprisal attacks when they relate their experiences to relatives back home. Nigeria has been engulfed in shifting rounds of ethnic violence since the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 ended more than 15 years of military rule. Many analysts believe the end of military rule lifted the lid on bottled-up grievances among the country’s more than 250 ethnic groups, a situation aggravated by the deep poverty engendered by years of misrule.