At least 48 people including four mobile policemen have been feared dead in renewed clashes in southern parts of Nigeria's central state of Plateau, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported Wednesday.

The NAN quoted Innocent Ilozuoke, commissioner of the Plateau State Police Command, as saying that the entire southern senatorial district of the state was engulfed in crises on Monday and Tuesday.

According to Ilozuoke, normalcy had been restored as a detachment of combined team of mobile policemen and soldiers had been drafted to the affected areas.

He said the soldiers and policemen were directed to continue patrolling the entire southern senatorial district of the state.

Ilozuoke said the state police command and the state government had recorded success in their reconciliation efforts, adding that the attack on Mavo village brought about the renewed hostilities.

He said security agencies in the state would continue to maintain peace and order in the southern senatorial district, and appealed to people of the area to embrace dialogue as a means of solving their problem.

As a multinational country in Africa, Nigeria has a huge and growing population of 138 million belonging to 373 ethnic groups. Clashes between different ethnic, religious and political groups break out frequently.

Official statistics show that since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999 after 15 years of military dictatorship, more than 10,000 Nigerians have been killed in ethnic, religious and political violence.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2004)