/ 29 July 1999

NIGERIANS KILLED IN ETHNIC CLASHES

SCORES of people have died in Nigeria during one week of ethnic clashes in the southern town of Shagamu and the northern city of Kano. Fighting first broke out on 18 July between ethnic Hausas from the north and local Yorubas in Shagamu, a town of about 300,000 inhabitants some 60km north of Lagos. In the ensuing violence at least 60 people were reported dead and scores of buildings, including shops, a hospital and mosques belonging to the predominantly Muslim Hausas were burnt. Fighting shifted to Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria, on Thursday after some of the dead and the displaced were returned home from Shagamu.