Internal displacement caused by both communal violence and internal armed conflict is a recurrent phenomenon in most states in Nigeria. The parties to the fighting have sought po-litical, economic and social advantages in a country with endemic poverty, low levels of education and a huge and alienated youth population.
There are no clear figures of the current number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country. Ad-hoc local registration exercises have hinted at the scale of displacement, but many people have sought shelter and support from family and friends and so have not been counted.
In 2009, increasingly bloody clashes between the army and militia members in the Niger Delta led to the displacement of thousands of people. However, with access to the area lim-ited, the numbers, location and needs of IDPs are unknown. Recent steps to resolve the con-flict have given IDPs cause to hope for a return home, notably the disarmament of some militia members under an amnesty.
In several central and northern states, outbreaks of violence over election results or be-tween communities divided along religious lines have triggered large-scale death, destruc-tion and displacement. Most recorded IDPs have sought refuge in police or army barracks, hospitals, mosques and churches.
The government has not yet adopted a national IDP policy, and national, international and local agencies have assisted IDPs on an ad-hoc or selective basis. The signing of the Afri-can Union's IDP convention in October 2009 may indicate the government's intention to address internal displacement in a more consistent and coherent manner.
Background and causes of dis-placement
Nigeria has been affected by recurrent internal conflicts and generalised vio-lence since the end of military rule and the return to democracy in 1999. The sys-tematic and overlapping patterns of ine-quality in the country have been described as "breeding grounds" for con-flict (O. Okpeh, 2008; CRISE, June 2007). As a result, the country is faced with the ongoing challenge of responding to a fluctuating but always sizeable inter-nally displaced population.
Nigeria is made up of an extremely com-plex web of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. Conflicts have been triggered by disputes over access to land, citizenship and broader questions of identity, particu-larly between people considered indige-nous to an area and those regarded as settlers. Indigenous groups have routinely prevented settlers from owning land or businesses, or accessing jobs and educa-tion, inevitably causing tensions. Accord-ing to a strategic conflict assessment carried out by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in 2002, the return to democracy and the competition for the new political opportunities had led to in-creased violence. Local competition for resources has often been aggravated by "inter-elite" rivalries over privileges such as political and public service appoint-ments, oversight of projects and admission into schools (IPCR, October 2002).
The principal source of wealth in Nigeria is the grouping of oil fields in the Niger Delta, and the country's dependence on revenues from it have undermined stabil-ity and governance. Huge amounts of oil are removed from pipelines, and oil smuggling is seen as a major threat to the rule of law in the whole West African sub-region (UNODC, July 2009). State reve-nues have not been shared effectively, and factional elites have taken control of state institutions, perpetuating the exclusion of other groups and accounting in large part for the poor score of Nigeria on the 2009 Failed States Index: the country was fif-teenth worst of 177 countries (The Fund for Peace, 2009). A decade after the return to democracy, transparent management behaviour, effective accountability and equitable distribution of resources are still rare, and the legitimacy of the state is still questioned (Chatham House, April 2009).
The Niger Delta
The southern Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States, considered the core of the Niger Delta region, have been the scene of vio-lent competition for land, political power and oil wealth. The government's failure to ensure security, limit environmental damage, deliver social development or establish effective local institutions led to an armed insurgency that escalated dra-matically in early 2006 (ICG, 3 August 2006). While some groups such as the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) used non-violent means in their struggle for increased minority and environmental rights, others chose armed conflict. Militias have clashed with the Nigerian army, kidnapped numerous foreign workers and destroyed installa-tions (Vanguard, 7 June 2009; IRIN, 17 November 2008). With many armed groups failing to uphold their goal of promoting social justice, drug trafficking and in recent years the more profitable theft of oil have become common in the region (CFR, 9 September 2009).
In May 2009 thousands of people were displaced by fighting between govern-ment forces and militants of the Move-ment for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which was created through the merger of different armed groups in 2005. The Joint Task Force (JTF), charged with restoring order in the Niger Delta, launched Operation Restore Hope in an effort to uproot militant groups. The JTF launched land and air strikes around the city of Warri in Delta State, and later extended its offensive to neighbouring Rivers State (Reuters, 24 May 2009). The number of casualties among the civilian population is unknown and reported IDP figures have varied, from 1,000 people sheltering in a school and hospital in the local capital Ogbe Ijoh to up to 10,000 residents believed to have fled into the forest and unable to return home (IRIN, 22 May 2009; BBC, 21 May 2009; AI, 20 May 2009). Most of the people being hosted in the hospital were reportedly women and children, and the reported arrests of the first men who sought refuge there on suspicion of being militants encouraged other men to remain in hiding in the bush (FoE-Nigeria, 19 June 2009). Hygiene conditions in the overcrowded hospital were reportedly very poor, and displaced women com-plained of the disruption to family life caused by the forced separation from fam-ily members and the community (FoE-Nigeria, 19 June 2009).
Clashes in the city of Warri have caused displacement in 2009, but again no clear information has ever been made available on the number of people displaced. Warri is the administrative centre of the oil in-dustry of the western Niger Delta region, and lies on a boundary between three dis-tinct ethnic groups. It has been the site of
frequent communal conflicts over the past forty years as well as of clashes be-tween militants and government forces (CFR, 9 September 2009). The Delta State government announced the begin-ning of a programme for some 5,000 IDPs to return to their homes in Warri in August 2009. The government guaran-teed that the JTF would not target IDPs and that funds would be set aside to re-build the communities destroyed in the clashes (Ministry of Information – Delta State, 3 August 2009). The JTF withdrew from Gbaramatu in Warri South Local Government area in mid-August 2009, leading to hopes for further returns to that area (MISNA, 14 August 2009).
