/ 17 October 2000

ETHNIC CLASHES LEAVE 16 DEAD

BLOODY ethnic clashes which erupted this week in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos have spread to other parts of the city, doubling the death toll to 16 people, witnesses said. The latest fighting in the slum district of Orile and earlier clashes in the Ijora district have added another eight deaths to a bloody feud between the militant ethnic Yoruba separatists group Odua People’s Congress (OPC) and ethnic Hausa-Fulanis. Lagos police chief Mike Okiro said the fighting was spreading fast to other parts of the sprawling city, and that police were trying to curtail the violence which has partly disrupted commercial activities in affected areas. – Reuters