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Help for the internally displaced

Some 20,00 people who sought refuge in army and police bases following outbreaks of sectarian violence in various parts of Nigeria are receiving help from the Nigerian Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.

The Nigerian Red Cross has been providing medicines, cooking utensils, bedding and clothing for women and children, ICRC said.

Thousands of northerners have sought shelter in military and police facilities in the southern states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu and Imo where Igbo youths launched retaliatory attacks on northerners after southerners were killed in the north.

The northern state of Kaduna, which was the scene of the first wave of violence between Christians and Muslims over the proposed introduction of Sharia law, is returning to normal, the ICRC said.

Quoting government estimates, the ICRC said just 35,000 of the initial 80,000 displaced persons remained in protected areas and that the number of injured people in hospitals had dropped from 738 to 300.


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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