Internal displacement

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] LAGOS, 7 September (IRIN) - More than 280,000 Nigerians have at one time or another been displaced by conflicts or natural disasters over the past two years, according to figures from humanitarian organisations and the media. Dr Anthony Okwuosa, who runs the Medical Rehabilitation Centre, an institution in Lagos that specialises in treating and rehabilitating people traumatised by conflict, characterises the trend of conflict and displacement in Nigeria as one of the symptoms of a society in transition. "When you have a country moving from dictatorship of the type Nigeria experienced for more than 15 years to nascent democracy, things like this happen," he told IRIN. "A lot of people who had been suppressed try to assert themselves and you have clashes." He added that in Nigeria the situation was made worse by the fact that the former dictators also sowed much discord among different groups, resulting in the existence of many "flashpoints leading to a high number of IDPs". Religious and ethnic clashes are the biggest source of internal displacement. Displacement in 2000 In the northern state of Kaduna more than 2,000 people were estimated to have been killed in February and May 2000 when protests by Christians against plans by the state government to introduce strict Islamic law resulted in widespread fighting across ethnic and religious lines. According to the Nigerian Red Cross, more than 80,000 people who were displaced during the crisis received humanitarian assistance. But the effects of the conflict were even more far-reaching. As victims from the mainly Christian south fled to their home areas, reprisal attacks broke out against suspected Muslim northerners in several southeastern states, causing more deaths, injuries and displacement. The Red Cross estimates that a further 11,000 families or more than 40,000 people were displaced by reprisal attacks in the south. In the meantime, smaller communal conflicts in the northeastern state of Borno, Kwara State in the central region and, in the southeast, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states, produced between them more than 13,360 IDPs. All these conflicts were centred around land disputes. Conflict in the Damboa community in Borno left over 5,000 people displaced. The clashes between two neighbouring communities, Itu in Akwa Ibom and Odukpani in Cross River, displaced 1,200 persons, while those between the Share and Tsaragi communities in Kwara caused more than 7,160 people to lose their homes, according to Red Cross figures. Also in Kwara, rainstorms forced more than 5,400 people in the Asa and Baruten local council areas from their homes. Another major incident leading to massive displacement of people occurred in October 2000, when militants of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), self-styled defenders of the interests of the Yoruba community of southwest Nigeria, fought Hausa-speaking northerners in Lagos' Ajegunle suburb. More than 20,000 people were displaced and hundreds were killed, humanitarian workers said. Displacement in 2001 This year, incidents leading to the large-scale displacement have stemmed from largely the same causes: most have been due to religious and ethnic differences or land disputes, but natural disasters have also taken a fair share of victims. The conflict that has created the largest number of IDPs, over 50,000, occurred in the central state of Nasarawa in June between Tivs and their Hausa-speaking neighbours. At the heart of the dispute was land, but the trigger was the killing by unidentified gunmen of the traditional ruler of the area's Hausa-speakers. The slain ruler's followers suspected Tivs of being behind the killing and mounted reprisal attacks. Police put the death toll from the fighting, which lasted nearly one month, at over 100. Independent sources said more than 200 died. The violence later spread to neighbouring Taraba State, where longstanding hostilities between the Jukun/Kutebs and the Tivs were revived. Local officials and humanitarian workers estimated that about 25,000 people fled their homes because of the fighting. Around the same time, fighting raged in Tafawa Balewa local government in Bauchi State, north of Taraba, between local Jarawas and Sayawas and Hausa-Fulani settlers, over plans by the state government to introduce Sharia. The Red Cross estimates that 22,866 people were displaced by the fighting. The mainly Christian Jarawas and Sayawas resent what they perceive as domination by the Muslim Hausa-Fulani, and there has been intermittent violence between them over the past 60 years. A new upsurge in fighting was reported in recent days in Tafawa Balewa. In the southeastern state of Ebonyi, a land dispute in July between two communities near the town of Afikpo left several people dead and more than 1,000 displaced. In the northern state of Kano, flooding from torrential rains over the weekend of 25-26 August killed dozens of people and displaced more than 48,000 in Kano and neighbouring Jigawa, according to preliminary assessments. The flooding occurred when the Tiga and Challawa dams caused their feeder rivers, the Kano and the Hadejia, to overflow. Despite the apparently high number of IDPs being recorded in Nigeria, some experts point out that the figures do not tell the whole story, considering that IDP populations are often very fluid. "The figures we give usually reflect the situation at the time the incidents occurred," Patrick Bawa, spokesman of the Nigerian Red Cross, told IRIN. "Over time people return to their homes or resettle in other places and the figures drop." High IDP turnover He said most of the IDPs from the crisis in Nasarawa State had been resettled, but he could not give definite figures before the outcome of an assessment now under way, whose purpose is to determine current numbers and needs. Humanitarian sources said most of the people displaced by communal clashes and natural disasters last year have all been resettled, but that the frequency of communal clashes and natural disasters in different parts of the country have meant a high IDP turnover. The body appointed by the government to deal with these emergencies is the National Emergency Relief Agency (NEMA). "By my estimation there are no fewer than 150,000 IDPs in different parts of the country that at present are in need of emergency assistance," a NEMA official told IRIN. He added that the body was often overwhelmed by the task at hand. Problems often faced by the IDPs include threats to their health, shelter and security. Displacement also creates a need for food aid. Overcrowding in camps - most often school buildings or open grounds - and lack of access to potable water expose IDPs to diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid fever. Camps are sometimes poorly secured from attacks by wild animals, bandits or adversaries. Insufficient assistance While government, UN and other international organisations, NGOs and embassies often provide assistance, most humanitarian workers agree that not enough is being done to cope with these emergencies. "I don’t think it is enough to distribute blankets and a few bags of rice, there is need to strengthen structures to cope with problems and encourage NGOs to participate," said Okwuosa. "More importantly, those providing emergency assistance should also be conscious of their exit strategies, to ensure that IDPs are not left in the lurch. They should not leave abruptly in a way that leaves a sour taste in the mouths of those they are trying to help."