44,000 displaced in Nigeria in 2014

The Nigerian government Thursday said it recorded a total of 44, 398 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northwest part of the country in 2014.

Musa Ilallah, the zonal coordinator for National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), who disclosed this to reporters, said the victims were displaced following communal clashes and attacks by unknown gunmen in the area, Xinhua reported.

He said the IDPs were from Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and a few others from the northeast, who settled in Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna states.

Ilallah said 13 bomb blasts were recorded in the region during the year in which 248 people died and 435 others were injured.

He said 11 of the bomb blasts and suicide attacks were recorded in Kano city while two occurred in Kaduna.

Ilallah said 945 people were killed during the year from the blasts, communal clashes and attacks by unknown gunmen in the three states.

The NEMA coordinator said 7, 692 households were affected by the attacks, which left many houses, shops and schools destroyed.

Since 2009, Nigeria has been under the siege of terrorism, engendered by an Islamic sect called Boko Haram. Members of the sect have carried out series of bombings of public places and killed many innocent citizens.