The North-west Zonal office, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA on Thursday said it recorded a total of 44, 398 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in 2014.

The agency’s Zonal Coordinator, Malam Musa Ilallah, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that the victims were displaced following communal clashes and attacks by unknown gunmen in the area.

He said the IDPs were from Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and a few others from the North-east, who settled in Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna States.

Ilallah said 20, 508 of the IDPs were victims of attacks by gunmen in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States, while 23, 890 people were displaced by communal clashes in Kaura, Kachia and Sanga council areas of the state.

He said many were also displaced following persistent communal clashes in Sanga Local Government Area, where NEMA had set up seven camps to support the displaced persons.

Ilallah said that 13 bomb blasts were recorded during the year in which 248 people died and 435 others were injured.

He said 11 of the bomb blasts and suicide attacks were recorded in Kano city while two occurred in Kaduna.

Ilallah said that 945 people were killed during the year from the blasts, communal clashes and attacks by unknown gunmen in the three states.

The NEMA coordinator explained that 7, 692 households were affected by the attacks, which left many houses, shops and schools destroyed.

He said NEMA had provided assistance to all the victims and would continue to render vital emergency services to cushion their hardship.