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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
NIGERIA: 18 killed in ethnic clash in Niger delta
WARRI, 12 January 2004 (IRIN) - Ethnic tension is rising once again in the volatile Niger Delta after unidentified gunmen attacked two boats near the oil city of Warri, killing at least 18 of the passengers on board.
Delta State government secretary Emmanuel Uduaghan told reporters that all the men, women and children killed in the incident last Friday belonged to the Ijaw ethnic group. Their attackers were suspected to be members of the rival Itsekiri tribe, he added.
The attack raised fears about the future of a fragile truce between Ijaw and Itsekiri militia groups that was negotiated in October. More than 200 people died last year as a result of armed clashes between the two tribes.
The Ijaws and Itsekiri are both seeking to control the benefits that accrue from the activities of oil companies operating in this swampy region of southeastern Nigeria.
Jonathan Ari, a spokesman for the Ijaw community, said the Itsekiris had attacked Ijaws five times in the past two months and each time the Ijaws had been advised by their leaders to refrain from reprisals.
“But this latest action by the Itsekiri has truncated the peace talks,” he told reporters in Warri.
Itsekiri leaders denied responsibility for the killing spree, blaming the attack on infighting among different Ijaw factions.
On Sunday, troops deployed in the Warri area helped to search for four boat passengers still missing following the attack.
Meanwhile, 200 km southeast of Warri, near the oil city of Port Harcourt, a dispute has broken out between Shell and the rural community of Rukpokwu over an oil spill that began four weeks ago. The spilled oil subsequently caught fire, destroying large areas of forest and farmland and polluting drinking water.
People in the village, 25 km from Port Harcourt, have blamed the oil spill, which caught fire two weeks ago, on the failure of a corroded pipeline. Community leaders have accused Shell of failing to take urgent steps to stop the leak, even though the company was alerted immediately after it was first noticed.
Aaron Azunda, a community leader in Rukpokwu, said a stream that is the only source of drinking water for the village had been polluted, while 300 hectares of farmland and fishing grounds had been destroyed.
“Having excavated the pipeline and seen it was caused by corrosion, Shell promised to come on 22 December to clamp it,” Azunda said. “But until now it has done nothing about it.”
A Shell spokesman confirmed that the spill had resulted from the fracture of a corroded pipeline, but he told IRIN that the company had been denied access to the site by members of Rukpokwu community, who demanded immediate cash payments first.
The spokesman accused local people of deliberately setting the spilled oil alight in the hope of receiving hefty compensation payments. He said Shell would clean up the spill if the community agreed to grant its technicians access to the site."
We’re committed to high standards, but equipment can still fail, there’s no magic to it,” the Shell official said.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Environment
[ENDS]
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