Benue says lost $217 million in communal unrest

Nigeria's Benue State has said it suffered losses worth 25 billion naira (US $ 217 million) from the communal unrest that affected the country's central region last year. In a memorandum to a judicial commission investigating the communal crises that also affected neighbouring Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba states, the counsel to the Benue State government, Chimezie Ikeazor, said the state was particularly hard hit by reprisal attacks launched by the army against villages of the Tiv ethnic group after a local militia killed 19 soldiers. "The combined effects of the army invasion and the provision of emergency relief services to the displaced has weighed heavily on the resources of the government and the people," Monday's memorandum said. Ikeazor said the losses, which stemmed from the destruction of houses, livestock and farm produce by the invading soldiers, did not include the hundreds of lives lost. According to the counsel, the unrest in the region was caused primarily by the denial of citizenship rights to Tivs in Taraba, Nasarawa and Plateau states. Tivs constitute the majority in Benue but are a minority in the other states. The document said Tivs in the other states were denied access to agricultural and residential land, rights to political representation, access to employment and other social services including health and education. The memorandum called for the abolition of all discrimination against Tivs in the affected states and the restoration of their full citizenship rights. "It will serve the cause of peace if the neighbouring states of Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba accorded Tiv people there their full citizenship rights," it said. The judicial commission, headed by Justice Okwuchukwu Opene, was set up in March by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Its terms of reference include identifying the immediate and remote causes of communal unrest in the affected states and putting forward solutions. More than 1,000 people died in communal conflicts in the four states last year. Tens of thousands of people were also displaced.