CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Many communities in Africa continue to be affected by long-standing conflicts with mass traumatization of their populations. Nigeria, as a country has a variety of low grade conflicts that result in chronic bloodletting without the country actually being in an open state of war. Over the past decade, the political crisis over ‘indigene’ rights and political representation in Jos, capital of Plateau State, Nigeria, has developed into a protracted communal conflict Krause, 2011). This recurring conflict often involves maiming, killing, burning of houses, motor vehicles and other properties. The effects of these crises include injuries, emotional trauma, and disabilities, loss of homes and livelihood as well as death. At least 4,000 and possibly as many as 7,000 people have been killed since late 2001, when the first major riot in more than three decades broke out in Jos. After the 2008 riot, more than 10,000 were displaced, while violence in 2010 resulted in about 18,000 people becoming internally displaced. All sides suffer a massive loss due to livelihoods destroyed (Krause, 2011)
The intensity of internal displacement has become a global problem. It has emerged as one of the great human tragedies of the 21st century. It has been estimated that almost 50 million people had been internally displaced worldwide due to conflicts or violations of human rights by the year 2010 (World Health Organization, 2009). According to several organizations, the number of victims range between one and nine million people. In addition, social, economic, political, legal, psychological, and health problems related to internal displacement still exist. Conflicts and wars have ineradicable changes in societal dynamics (Somasundoram, 2009). Therefore, this kind of societal traumas experienced by the victim of conflict and disasters affected most internally displaced persons (IDPs). To provide useful assessments of the IDPs, the approached most take into account the effects on the individual and social aspects (Summerfield, 2003).
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are person who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situation or generalized violence, violation of human rights or natural or human made distress, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, 2007). It is therefore, necessary to distinguished between refugees and IDPs. If the displaced persons cross international border and falls under one of the relevant international legal instrument, they are considered refugees. IDPs reflect two factors; the coercive or otherwise involuntary character of   movement and the fact that such movement takes place within national border. First, some of the common causes of involuntary movements are armed conflict, violence and human right violation and disaster (NRC, 2009).
The history of Nigeria, immediately after attaining our republican status had been greeted with various kinds of political violence and conflicts. The implication is that men, women and children had been on the receiving end of all these problems. Nigeria remains a multi-ethnic nation which has between 350-500 linguistics groups and Populated by fairly half Christians and Muslims (Salawu, 2010; Paden, 2008; Tiffen, 1968; Hansford, Bendor-Samuel & Stanford, 1976).  With a history of ethno-religious conflict in Nigeria, the past year has witnessed an alarming upsurge in the level of violence and its impact on civilians. Almost one year after spiraling violence between mainly Muslim cattle herders and Christian farmers in central Plateau state left possibly more than 1,000 people dead and 258,000 temporarily displaced, many of those who fled are still too scared to return to their villages and residential areas.
Cumulative figures for internal displacement are provided by the National Commission for Refugees (NCFR). In February 2014, it reported that there were 3.3 million IDPs in the country as of 31 December 2013. It has not provided figures for 2014. The Presidential Initiative on the North-east (PINE) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported that Boko Haram had displaced 1.5 million people in the north-east (OCHA, 23 September 2014). No independent estimates are provided, either by the UN resident humanitarian coordinator’s office or the Abuja regional branch of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).