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ABIDJAN, 2 June (IRIN) - Close to 200 people have died in weekend fighting between Ijaw and Itsekiri youths in Nigeria's oil-rich delta area, news organisations reported.
Hundreds more have been fled the fighting around the Escravos River, just south of the town of Warri, according to AFP. 'The Guardian' newspaper of Lagos quoted an official of Chevron - a US oil company - as saying that Western and Nigerian oil firms have been evacuating people by helicopter from the area.
Months of intermittent fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris resumed on Sunday when Ijaw militants attacked the Itsekiri village of Arunton, Reuters reported. The site lies near Chevron's Escravos oil export terminal.
Now, Warri sea port has been closed, `The Guardian' reported, "as the Itsekiri youths are reported to be invading and chasing out their Ijaw counterparts in retaliation of the Ijaw's attack on Arunton".
A company of 150 soldiers from the army's 20 Amphibious Battalion, based at Effurun in the Delta State, have been sent to the troubled area. However, the atmosphere in Warri remains tense, especially in the riverine areas where residents fear youths are primed for retaliatory attacks, the newspaper reported.
Governor meets community leaders
News reports said Delta State Governor James Ibori met on Tuesday with leaders of the three ethnic groups in Warri: the Ijaw, the Itsekiri and the Urhobo. It is unclear whether this will lessen tension beyond the short term because, local analysts told IRIN, elders may no longer be able to control the youths.
"The youths may have taken a life of their own," Clement Nwanko, executive director of the Constitutional Rights Project in Lagos, told IRIN. Issues most dear to the youth, he said, were the need for jobs and for more money to be spent in the area, "so, their destiny is not tied to that of their elders".
President Olusegun Obasanjo's government must identify and talk to the leaders of the militant youths to hear their complaints, Nwanko added, if the violence is to be stopped.
Former Justice Minister Richard Akinjide felt much the same way. He told `The Guardian' in a report carried on Wednesday that Obasanjo would have to involve the state and local governments, as well as oil companies in talks.
"If all these institutions and governments work
hand-in-hand to formulate policy, very soon we will
start to see changes in the quality of life of the
people of that area," he said.
Area residents want infrastructure rebuilt and decent
homes put up. They also want oil companies to clean
up their environmental garbage.
A blueprint for development of the Delta, recommended by the Belgore commission of 1992, addressed all of these problems, Princess Rume Akiri, a Delta State representative on that commission, said in a recent interview.
Obasanjo's government, she said, needs to implement these recommendations sincerely if peace is to return. "Going by his pronouncements, one is very confident that he is going to be sincere and honest to the Niger Delta people," she said.
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-947
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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