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Unrest displaced 750,000 in two years, says VP

    LAGOS

    Communal disturbances in Nigeria displaced 750,000 people in the last two years, Vice President Atiku Abubakar said on Monday.

    Atiku revealed these figures while declaring open a workshop on the "United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement" in the central city of Jos, organised by the National Commission for Refugees. He said Nigeria has had its own "unenviable share" of displaced people in recent years.

    About 500,000 people were displaced in 2001 and 250,000 in 2002.

    According to the vice president, the IDP figures for Nigeria continued to change "as one crisis is contained while another breaks out elsewhere".

    Nigeria has been rocked by a series of ethnic and religious conflicts since President Olusegun Obasanjo's election ended a decade and half of military rule in 1999. It is estimated than more than 10,000 people have been killed in unrest in different parts of the country since then.

    The aim of the workshop is to strenghten inter-agency collaboration in rehabilitating, resettling and reconciling victims of conflicts.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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