Rebel violence forces thousands to flee

TENS of thousands of Nigerians are fleeing deadly attacks by armed groups and continuing clashes between rebels and national forces in the country’s troubled northeastern Borno state.

The latest rebel attack on Wednesday drove out as much as 80 per cent of the population of Damasak, according to UN refugee agency officials, who said up to 65,000 people were on the move.

“Assailants looted and burned down private homes, warehouses of humanitarian agencies, a police station, a clinic, and also a UNHCR facility,” said the UN agency’s spokesman Babar Baloch.

There are “very worrying” reports of clashes between insurgent groups and Nigeria’s armed forces, said Jens Laerke of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Armed groups have been attacking humanitarian facilities and conducting house-to-house searches looking for aid workers. Most humanitarian operations have been suspended in the area since Sunday.

Mr Baloch added: “The situation on the ground is extremely critical. If this continues, it will be impossible, maybe for longer periods of time, for us to deliver aid to people who desperately need it.”

The incidents mark the latest violence in the Lake Chad basin area where in recent years some 3.3 million people have been uprooted.