Four people were killed and dozens of houses were set ablaze on Sunday as rival ethnic militias waged gunbattles in the southern Nigerian oil city of Warri for the third consecutive day.
The violence is the most serious since March, when an ethnic Ijaw rebellion forced oil majors to evacuate key installations and shut down 40 percent of OPEC member Nigeria's oil output. Dozens died in the revolt.
Nigerian Red Cross President Emmanuel Ijewere said four people were killed and 54 people wounded, some with bullet wounds and others slashed by machetes, in the clashes between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups.
About 55 houses had been torched, he added.
The ongoing violence, however, made it impossible to get a true picture of the death toll. Ijewere said he was withdrawing his staff because of the deteriorating situation.
At least three people died in the previous day's fighting as thousands fled their homes in the latest surge of bloodletting to grip the West African country, one of the world's top oil exporters.
The latest cycle of unrest could delay any plans by Royal Dutch Shell, Nigeria's biggest producer, and ChevronTexaco to restart some facilities abandoned after the clashes five months ago.
"I can hear gunshots all over the place," a correspondent in Warri said on Sunday. "People are running helter-skelter and some houses are on fire."
Ijaws and Itsekeris traded blame for the violence, which is rooted in disputes over land and political power.
Witnesses said the skirmishes followed an attack on a village of strong cultural importance to the Itsekiris on Thursday in which four were reported killed and 15 missing.
The poverty-stricken Niger Delta region around Warri has been volatile for years and local tribes feuding over political power and oil revenues clash frequently.
The army said it had managed to quell the unrest by early evening, but eyewitnesses said shots continued to ring out during the night. Four military vehicles patrolled the streets as the army prepared to bring in reinforcements.
The army blamed Sunday's violence on the Ijaws.
"It appears as if the Ijaws planned a very coordinated attack on the Itsekiris," said army spokesman Emeka Onwuamaegbu.
"They came from different areas and they were out to attack all the Itsekiris," he said.
Misam Ukubeyenje, a Warri politician, said Itsekiris repelled Ijaw attacks in two areas of the city but that fighting was continuing into the night.
He said "a lot of Ijaws died" when Itsekiris fought back.
German Messio, a spokesman for the militant group Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, said that Itsekiris started Sunday's violence by attacking Ijaws in the morning.
The army's Onwuamaegbu warned that the military might have to take a harder line if the fighting continued.
"The soldiers tried to restore order. We have done this in a very, very restrained manner, " he said
"We are still hoping that they will see sense and stop these attacks, because if they continue and if they continue killing our soldiers, we might have to change our posture," he said.
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