The Ezza and Ezillo communities in Ebonyi State in eastern Nigeria have been experiencing bloody clashes over land rights since the past five months where at least 20 people have died.
According to local media, the latest round of killings started in May, when an argument broke out over which community controlled a local market.
At the request of the State Governor, Martin Elechi, the military has been called in to help split up the clashing communities and a curfew has been declared for three months while hundreds of families are separated and resettled.
At least 12,000 people have been killed in communal clashes in Nigeria in the last decade, with claims that many of the clashes have been prompted by political gurus who use hired miscreants and hoodlums to stir ethnic or religious tension for selfish gains.
Ebonyi State information commissioner, Ken Zegede Uhuo has claimed that the people in the communities are tired of the fighting and are willing to make sacrifices for peace.
Reports say that both communities have always had stand-offs ever since the Ezza people moved to the area in the late 1950s and migrant communities like the Ezza have limited rights to land, even years after they settle in new areas.
