A total of 14,127 people who fled their homes in the aftermath of four days of ethnic bloody clashes last week in Lagos are still in four refugee camps, the Nigerian Red Cross Society said Monday.
More than 100 people died in the clashes which authorities said were triggered by a militant group, the Odua People's Congress (OPC), set up in 1995 to protect the interests of the Yoruba in southwest.
The camps were set up at military barracks located in Ajegunle and Apapa, the two districts most affected by the clashes, which lasted four days before a joint police-military patrol ended the fighting.
The displaced people, made up 2,825 families, still need food, medication and water, Red Cross spokesman Danjuma Bawa said in a statement, a copy of which was given to AFP.
The organization, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has so far distributed 5,000 blankets, 5,000 mats, 5,000 cups, 3,000 buckets, 5,000 tablets of soap and 10 rolls of plastic sheets, it said.
The leader and founder of the OPC, Frederic Fasheun, and 41 other suspected members of the group, were on Friday here charged with murder, illegal possession of arms and arson.
No pleas were taken from them and the magistrate court ordered their remand in prison custody till November 17 when their case will come up for hearing -- LAGOS (AFP)
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