City hosts festival of twins

A Nigerian city with an unusually high number of twins has celebrated the phenomenon at an annual festival.

Nearly every family in the south-western city of Igbo-Ora has twins or other multiple births, according to local chief Jimoh Titiloye.

For the past 12 years, the community has held an annual festival to celebrate twins.

This year’s event, held earlier this month, included more than 1,000 pairs of twins. There is no proven scientific explanation for the high rate of twins in Igbo-Ora, a city of at least 200,000 people 83 miles south of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos.

But many in IgboOra believe it can be traced to women’s diets. Some attribute it to a local delicacy called amala, which is made from yam flour.