eritvnews: Shocking!!! How 46 people were killed in March ethnic clashes in Nigeria: police

Lagos - At least 46 people were killed and almost
100 others wounded in clashes between rival
ethnic groups in southwest Nigeria earlier this
month, police said on Wednesday.


Special forces were deployed to the city of Ile-Ife
in Osun state following two days of violence that
broke out between local Yoruba and Hausa people
on March 7, Nigeria's national police
spokesperson Moshood Jimoh told AFP.
"The casualty figures are 46 dead and 96
wounded in the violence in Ile-Ife. Of those
injured, 81 had been treated while 15 are still in
the hospital," Jimoh said.


Police arrested 20 suspects following the
violence, Jimoh said, adding that they would be
prosecuted after thorough investigations.
"Our appeal to people is to learn to tolerate one
another. We should encourage peaceful co-
existence among the different tribes in Nigeria,"
Jimoh said.
"We should stop seeing ourselves as Hausa, Igbo
and Yoruba," he said, referring to the three main
ethnic groups in Nigeria.


Bisi Adisa, a retired Yoruba driver in Ile-Ife, told
AFP that the uproar started when a Hausa trader in
the Sabo area of the city was accused of
assaulting a Yoruba woman.
"Instead of showing remorse, other Hausa traders
mobilised and killed a Yoruba man and paraded
his corpse around the area which angered the
Yoruba," he said.


Adisa said that the town was still gripped by
terror despite the arrest of some suspects.
Nigeria, an economic giant of 180 million people,
is home to some 250 ethnic groups.
Ethnic tensions have long divided the oil-rich west
African country, which is almost equally divided
between a Muslim north and Christian south.
Mutual suspicion between the groups continues to
simmer and often erupts in bloody clashes.