Nigeria sees 3 mln displaced by conflict in 7 yrs

ABUJA, Mar 14 (Reuters) Ethnic and religious fighting, land disputes and communal conflicts have driven more than three million Nigerians from their homes since the return to democracy in 1999, according to reportan official report.

The National Commission for Refugees yesterday said the problem of internal displacement in Africa's most populous nation was worsening and now appeared to be a permanent feature of society.

''The magnitude, scope, character and dimension of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria is frightening,'' the commission said in a presentation to a National Assembly public hearing, aimed at improving the response to the problem.

''From Yobe in the far north to Calabar on the fringe of the Atlantic, the IDP situation appears to increase from day to day,'' it added.

The commission, a state body, said the government was not paying sufficient attention to IDPs.

Abdul Oroh, of the House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights, said few people were prosecuted after deadly bouts of violence that drove people from their homes.

The commission said the IDP problem stemmed from three decades of military rule that caused deep but repressed anger within society. The return to civilian rule in 1999 allowed frustrations to come out into the open and erupt into conflict.

COMPLEX ROOTS At least 14,000 Nigerians have died in ethnic, religious or communal fighting since 1999, according to conservative estimates of human rights groups.

In the most recent outbreak, religious riots in the northern city of Maiduguri last month killed up to 50 people, mostly Christians, and left many more homeless.

In a typical pattern, the Maiduguri killings sparked reprisal murders of Muslims in the southern city of Onitsha and there too, thousands fled their homes, seeking refuge in army barracks or leaving the area altogether.

The causes of internal displacement in Nigeria are varied and complex, with many disputes beginning over land or political control of local areas and later taking on an ethnic or religious dimension, the Commission for Refugees said.

The worst-affected of Nigeria's 36 states was Delta in the southern, oil-producing Niger Delta region.

The commission said Delta state had witnessed 700,000 IDPs because of fighting between the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic groups over who should control the oil city of Warri, as well as other conflicts involving militias. The figure refers to 2003 when ethnic warfare reached a peak.

Other states in the Niger Delta, where resentment against the government has fuelled a cycle of militancy, oil theft, sabotage, kidnappings and army repression, also ranked highly in numbers of IDPs.

REUTERS CS SND1103