Nigeria's president calls for calm after clashes in southwest Oyo state

LAGOS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Nigeria's president appealed for
calm on Sunday following reports of intercommunal violence
between ethnic groups at a market in the southwestern state of
Oyo.
Clashes between traders from the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic
groups broke out on Saturday at Shasha market in Ibadan, the
capital of Oyo, the state governor's spokesman said. Most Yoruba
live in southwestern Nigeria, while the Hausa are concentrated
in northern states.
Tensions have increased in southwestern states in recent
weeks amid claims by public figures that nomadic cattle herders
from the mainly northern Fulani ethnic group are carrying out
violent crimes, which the pastoralists have denied. Many of the
herders have moved south in search of dwindling grazing land.
Usman Yako, chair of the Hausa traders association at Shasha
market, told Reuters by telephone at least 11 people from his
ethnic group were killed in clashes at the market on Friday and
Saturday that followed an argument between Yoruba and Hausa
traders.
President Muhammadu Buhari appealed on Twitter to religious
and traditional leaders, as well as elected leaders, "to join
hands with the federal government to ensure that communities in
their domain are not splintered along ethnic and other
primordial lines".
"We will not allow any ethnic or religious groups to stoke
up hatred and violence against other groups," he wrote.
Oyo state police did not immediately respond to calls
requesting comment.
"The attacks, which led to the loss of lives and properties,
must be investigated and perpetrators brought to justice,"
rights group Amnesty International said in a statement,
referring to the violence at Shasha market.
Nigeria's security forces are already stretched by armed
gangs of kidnappers in the northwest and an Islamist militant
insurgency in the northeast.