At least 200 people were killed in Lafia, the capital of Nigeria's central Nasarawa state in two weeks of ethnic fighting, the Red Cross said Friday.
"According to our field report, at least 200 people died in Lafia while 50 others were hospitalized as at Thursday afternoon," Nigerian Red Cross spokesman Patrick Bawa told AFP.
Some 50 others were hospitalized in the state capital, he added.
Clashes between ethnic Tiv and Hausa-speaking people in Nasarawa erupted on June 12, following the killing of a Hausa-speaking traditional ruler.
On Wednesday, Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Adamu said at least 27 people had been killed in the unrest.
In the remote village of Tudun Adabu in the state, dozens others were killed, locals said on Thursday.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning Tiv youths, according to local residents, bent on revenge for two weeks of anti-Tiv killings, entered the village and, using guns and machetes, murdered 58 people including the village chief, prominent people, and several children.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of Tiv have fled their homes.
But calm was slowly being restored in the area, Bawa said.
"The situation is gradually returning to normal now," the spokesman said.
Officials in neighbouring Benue State say that more than 35,000 people have fled Nasarawa for its neighbor -- LAGOS (AFP)
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