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Journalism of Courage
LAGOS, Aug 20: Clashes between two feuding communities in south-western Nigeria’s Osun state has left up to 50 dead in a flare-up of decades-long rivalry and hatred, according to witness accounts and press reports.
Despite a curfew imposed upon the Ife and Modakeke communities on Sunday, some people were burnt alive during continuing unrest in the two towns on Monday, witnesses told AFP on Tuesday.
The violence erupted after a decision last Thursday by the local government to relocate its headquarters from Modakeke to Oke-Ogbo, an Ife-controlled town. The headquarters was earlier moved in March from Enuwa, where it had been housed in the former palace of traditional Ife King.
An uneasy calm pervaded the two communities on Tuesday as an exodus of residents continued, and the two towns have been left partly ruined by the violence.
