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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

NIGERIA: Delta militants agree to end fighting, says governor

LAGOS, 21 August 2003 (IRIN) - Rival ethnic militias have agreed to end fighting after days of bloody clashes in Nigeria's southern oil city of Warri in which dozens of people died, the local Delta State governor said on Thursday.

Governor James Ibori, who cut short his annual vacation abroad to deal with the crisis, said he called a meeting of leaders of the rival Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups and impressed on them the need to put an immediate stop to the fighting.

"What I have done is to appeal to their conscience that we're all going to be losers in this game if Warri is destroyed," he told reporters.

Fighting broke out in the city which is a major centre for oil transnationals operating in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta on Friday and continued for the next four days despite a night curfew imposed by the authorities.

Witnesses said more than 45 people were killed as Ijaw and Itsekiri youths armed with automatic weapons battled each other on the streets and set buildings ablaze despite the deployment of soldiers and policemen.

More army and police reinforcements were sent into the city on Tuesday to create a buffer between the warring sides, said Nigeria's defence spokesman Col. Ganiyu Adewale. No new clashes have been reported between the two groups since then.

However, leaders of the militias said on Thursday they had not been party to the meeting with the governor where a ceasefire was agreed, but pledged to respect it.

"We were not privy to that meeting but we will not attack anyone if we are not attacked," Ijaw youth leader Dan Ekpebide told IRIN.

"We are prepared to abide by the peace accord provided the Ijaws will do likewise," said Matthew Tsekure, his Itsekiri counterpart.

At the heart of the violence are claims and counter-claims to the ownership of the oil-rich land. The individuals and communities who control the land mop up the many benefits that can be extracted from the oil companies whose wells have been drilled there.

Fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris in March left at least 100 people dead and forced oil transationals operating in the area to shut down facilities producing 40 percent of Nigeria's daily export of two million barrels.

Ijaws accuse Obasanjo's government of abetting an Itsekiri ascendancy over their neighbours, giving them the best of government patronage and most of the few amenities that come to the impoverished region.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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