More than 1000 people have been killed in ethnic, regional, and religious clashes inside Nigeria since the end of military rule. This has been fueled by several factors. With the end of the autocratic junta, many groups are out to get as much as they can under the new democratic government. Other groups are demanding redress for what they regard as years of oppression (and misuse of their regional resources) by the national government. The power has shifted from the Moslem north to the Christian south, a move that the Moslems in the north oppose. Moslem factions are increasingly demanding that Islamic Sharia law be imposed in their provinces (which would block an infusion by Christian businessmen) and eventually extended to the Christian south (which would probably trigger another civil war).--Stephen V Cole