By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA): At least 150 people were killed and several thousand others displaced in communal clashes last week in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern Cross River state, an official of the state-run relief agency said Tuesday.

“Between June 27 and June 29 the people of Wanikade and Wanihem communities both in the Yala Local Government Area of the state were involved in a communal war,” News Agency of Nigeria quoted John Inaku, chief of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), as saying.

“As a result of the bloody war, 14,000 people have been displaced, 1,233 houses were destroyed, while over 150 persons have lost their lives,” he added.

Inaku said over 4,000 of those displaced victims had taken refuge in the Oju local government area of the neighboring Benue state in central Nigeria.

The SEMA boss said the communal clash erupted as a result of a land dispute, adding that it had created an upheaval which led to the fleeing of the inhabitants of about 41 villages to neighbouring communities in Yala and Oju LGAs in Benue State.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, state police spokeswoman Irene Itohan, confirmed the clashes, which she said have been ongoing over the years.

She could not confirm the death toll put forth by the relief agency, but added: “Over a hundred houses were burnt and several persons were displaced but calm has now returned to the communities.”

Cross River, like a few other Nigerian states with multiple ethnic groups, is notorious for intercommunal clashes often caused by disputes over land ownership or sociopolitical rivalries.

In mid-June, over 100 people were killed in similar clashes in the Mambilla plateau area of the northeastern Taraba state.

[Map of Nigeria. By CIA/Public Domain]