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Monday, 29 November, 1999, 10:08 GMT
Security fears as Hausas flee Lagos
Hundreds of people are fleeing Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, in the wake of riots which are reported to have killed over 100 people. Members of the minority Hausa community have left Lagos, in south-western Nigeria, and are heading for the nothern Hausa heartland. Fighting broke out late on Thursday between members of Nigeria's two largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba - who form the majority in the south-west - and the Hausa, who dominate the north of the country.
Kano, which has a substantial Yoruba minority, saw severe fighting in July, after Hausas fled there to escape violence in the south-western town of Sagamu. Appeal for calm In Lagos, Governor Bola Tinubu met leaders of both communities to appeal for calm, promising to guarantee the security of residents. On Sunday, Hausa leaders said the community needed protection from the police and blamed a hardline Yoruba nationalist group, the Odua People's Congress (OPC), for the killings. Armed police are patrolling the suburb of Keto where the unrest began, and have been working with community leaders to collect and bury the dead. But they say they do not have sufficient numbers, or training, to properly control all the sensitive areas in the city. Eyewitnesses who went to the scene on Sunday spoke of bodies still lying in the streets, in rubbish dumps or floating in streams. They described hundreds of homes in ruins, and burned-out cars littering the streets. The violence that erupted in a Lagos market on Thursday was the worst in a series of bloody incidents in Nigeria since military rule ended in May. The trouble began when ethnic Hausa and Yoruba traders began fighting for control of a popular food market. The clashes have led to renewed fears for the stability of Africa's most populous country. |
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