A government commission found that the death toll in tribal and religious fighting in Plateau state has been 53,000 (17,459 children, 17,397 women and 18,931 men) over the last three years. This is far more than earlier estimates, which put the death toll at 10-15,000 for the entire country. The lower figure came as a result of police and government officials reporting lower figures in order to downplay the extent of the violence. Plateau state is in central Nigeria, and there has been similar violence throughout northern Nigeria, and in the south, especially in the delta region, where the oil facilities are. This would indicate that deaths nation wide are in excess of 40,000 a year for the past three years.
