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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

NIGERIA: Ijaw militants say halting fighting

LAGOS, 27 March 2003 (IRIN) - Ijaw militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta, who have engaged troops and rival Itsekiris in two weeks of fighting in which up to 100 people died, said on Wednesday they had stopped fighting after the Delta State governor James Ibori promised to meet their demands.

Ijaw communities in the western Niger Delta had alleged that distribution of electoral wards ahead of April general elections were lopsided in a way that would disenfranchise their communities in favour of their Itsekiri neighbours.

Fighting between the rival communities had sucked in the army after clashes between troops and Ijaw militants resulted in the death of several soldiers. An escalation in the fighting forced oil transnationals operating in the area to shut down their operations and 40 percent (over 800,000 barrels per day) of Nigeria's daily oil output of about two million barrels.

The Ijaw militants also seized several oil facilities and threatened to blow them up if the military continued to attack their communities.

"We met with the governor and he promised to prevail on the military authorities not to carry out reprisal attacks on our villages," Bello Oboko, president of the militant Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, told IRIN. "He also promised to intervene to ensure our political demands were met."

Abel Oshevire, spokesman for governor Ibori confirmed the militants had agreed to end further violence. The governor, he added, prevailed on the belligerent groups to give the Independent National Electoral Commission time to to re-draw electoral wards in "a just and equitable" manner.

Nigerian army spokesman, Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu, described the decision of the youths to lay down arms and pursue a peaceful resolution of the crisis as "a very welcome development". He said there had been no incidents since Tuesday in the conflict area and expressed hope things would remain that way.

Thousands of soldiers have been deployed in the waterways of the western Niger Delta to protect the facilities of oil transnationals ChevronTexaco, Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFinaElf, evacuated in the heat of the violence and help quell the fighting.

The conflict is linked to the violent dispute which broke out in Warri in February between the Urhobo and the Itsekiri communities over the delineation of electoral wards ahead of April-May general elections. The Ijaw community took sides with the Urhobo, alleging the sharing of wards was lopsided in favour of the Itsekiri.

Tension in the Warri area has added to apprehension that the coming elections, the first since the 1999 vote that brought President Olusegun Obasanjo to office and ended more than 15 years of military rule, may be marred by violence. Rival supporters of different political parties have clashed in different parts of Africa's most populous country while several cases of political assassinations have been recorded nationwide.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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