Military

DATE=10/19/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-

TITLE=NIGERIA / VIOLENCE (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=LUIS RAMIREZ

DATELINE=ABIDJAN

CONTENT:

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Nigerian police are looking for leaders of a banned separatist group blamed for ethnic violence this week in the commercial capital, Lagos. V-O-A's Luis Ramirez at our West Africa bureau reports the skirmishes have killed at least 100 people and displaced thousands of others.

TEXT: Nigerian Red Cross officials say the fighting between members of the Yoruba separatist group known as the Odua People's Congress, or O-P-C, and ethnic Hausas has forced about 20-thousand people to flee their homes.

The fighting began Sunday, when witnesses say Yorubas attacked a group of Hausas in Lagos' Ijora district. The fighting spread rapidly to other parts of the city.

The displaced Hausas are taking refuge in police and military barracks in Lagos.

Nigerian police say they have launched an intense manhunt for the leaders of the O-P-C. On Wednesday, President Olusegun Obasanjo banned the group and ordered that its leaders be detained.

The government deployed soldiers across Lagos' central business district in an attempt to quell the violence, which has left streets littered with bodies of victims and burnt-out vehicles.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, has been torn by ethnic violence since Mr. Obasanjo took office last year. About a thousand people have been killed in skirmishes. The bloodiest of the confrontations happened in February, when fighting broke out between Christians and Muslims in the northern city of Kaduna following the introduction of the strict Islamic law, known as sharia.

Critics of the Obasanjo government have accused the president of favoring his own ethnic group, the Yoruba.

On Thursday, the government called for all sides to reach a peaceful settlement.

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Witnesses in Lagos on Thursday said the city remained calm amid the heightened police and military presence. (Signed)

NEB/LR/KL/FC