AP) _ Rival gangs clashed in Nigeria’s southern oil industry hub, leaving at least one dead and more than a dozen others injured, police and aid group officials said Saturday.
Police confirmed the overnight gunbattle in the city of Port Harcourt but had no casualty figures. The French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said it treated 15 people for gunshot wounds at their clinic in the city and that one person died.
Security officials and area residents say a disagreement between gang leaders over control of areas near the city sparked the battle. Officials at the military unit in the region weren’t immediately available for comment Saturday.
Armed gangs are active in the vast swamps and creeks of Nigeria’s southern oil region, known as the Niger Delta. The gangs vie for control over turf containing oil infrastructure, which can be illegally tapped for oil that’s sold on black markets overseas.
The gangs also run protection rackets in the cities such as Port Harcourt where Africa’s largest oil industry is based, and are behind many of the kidnappings rife in the area.
The criminal gangs also are involved in militant activities aimed at forcing the Nigerian federal government to send more oil industry revenue to the Niger Delta, which is deeply impoverished despite its natural bounty.
Militant groups such as the most potent Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta are believed to encompass a myriad of armed factions that often battle among themselves and draw in the military units charged with calming the Niger Delta.
Violence against the oil industry has trimmed about one quarter of Nigeria’s normal daily oil output, helping send prices higher in global markets.
Dozens of Nigerians, including many bystanders, have died in recent years due to gang battles in the southern region.