At least 80,000 displaced in Nigeria after intercommunal violence

At least 80,000 people have been displaced over the past three months in central Nigeria, the scene of bloody inter-communal violence where the army has sent reinforcements, a local official said.

Northwestern and central Nigeria are regularly the scene of tensions and deadly conflicts around the exploitation of land and water resources.

“There are around 80,000 displaced people in eleven camps” in Mangu, the epicenter of violence in the Plateau, said Markus Artus, a senior local official.

“Nearly 18,000 of them are housed in a primary school serving as a makeshift camp in Mangu,” Markus Artus added. One of the camp coordinators, Yamput Daniel, gave a similar estimate.

Nigerian Army Chief of Staff General Taoreed Lagbaja traveled to Mangu on Saturday to mark the start of special operations aimed at “eradicating” the crisis.