LAGOS, 18 February (IRIN) - 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.
[ENDS]
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