LAGOS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's Delta State Government has commence a mass relocation of some 5,000 persons displaced by recent military operation in the Niger Delta to their various communities, local media reported on Monday.

    The victims were displaced by the military operation of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Restore Hope following the killing of six soldiers by suspected militants in the area on May 13.

    Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said the victims would start returning to their communities from Monday even as he revealed plans to resettle them.

    The announcement has raised hope of return of normal economic activities to the Warri waterways and other riverside communities in the state, following spate of bloody clashes between the task force and the armed youths.

    The governor said he had reached an agreement with the JTF to facilitate the return of the displaced persons, most of who were camped at the Ogbe-Ijoh General Hospital, to their ravaged communities.

    In May this year, militants and the JTF clashed in the swamps of the southern Niger Delta region, where scores of militants were killed.