Nearly 20,000 displaced in Nigerian religious clashes

Muslim-Christian clashes in Nigeria’s central city of Jos have displaced some 20,000 people in three days and caused water and food shortages in the city, relief agencies said on Wednesday.

“The greatest challenge which we ... are facing now is providing food, water and medicine to the displaced people in the camps whose number has swollen to about 20,000,” Mark Lipdo, coordinator of a local aid agency Stefanus Foundation, told AFP.

Food, water and medicine supplies have been running low in the city amid a round-the-clock curfew authorities imposed Tuesday after Christian and Muslim gangs fought pitched street battles, leaving around 300 people dead.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation “has worsened in respect of displaced people,” said the head of the Red Cross in the city, Awwalu Mohammed.

He said five makeshift camps set up on Sunday are bursting at the seams “with many more people than we anticipated”.

“Taps are dry throughout the city because water plants have been shut down,” said Mohammed.

Jos resident Hashim Tijani told AFP: “Everybody is now inside with no food and water. The taps are not running”.

Fighting between Muslim and Christian mobs ignited on Sunday over plans to build a mosque in a mainly Christian district of the city, which has been riven by sectarian tensions.

The country’s vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan, ordered extra troops into the city late Tuesday after terrified residents reported shooting in the streets and smoke billowing from parts of the Plateau State capital despite a 24-hour curfew.KANO, Thursday, AFP