Gun battles between rival gangs in Nigeria’s southern oil-producing state of Rivers erupted on Tuesday in violence linked to a change of governor, killing 15 people, local rights activists said.
Gang fighting is just one facet of an 18-month upsurge in violence in the anarchic delta that President Umaru Yar’Adua pledged in his inaugural speech on Tuesday he would tackle urgently.
Yar’Adua will face an uphill battle. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a rebel group responsible for attacks on the oil industry that have cut output by a quarter, immediately dismissed his pledge as not enough to stop violence.
“We will not suspend our attacks until we get more than words … He should have given something in exchange such as the release of Niger Delta hostages in Nigerian government hands,” the group’s spokesman said in an email to Reuters.
In Rivers, gang leaders angry at politicians over what they consider insufficient payment for their role in intimidating opponents during last month’s state elections had planned to disrupt Tuesday’s inauguration of the new state governor.
“They wanted to disrupt the transition in Rivers because they feel they were used and dumped by the government without being properly compensated,” said a rights activist, who did not wish to be named because he has contacts among the fighters.
RIVAL MILITIAMEN
Instead, rival militiamen also in the pay of politicians ambushed the gunmen near the riverine community of Tombia and attacked them with automatic weapons at dawn.
“There was very heavy fighting in the morning (Wednesday 30 May, AM) and 15 of them were killed. The crisis is still going on as there have been reprisal attacks all day,” said the activist.
The police commissioner of Rivers said he had heard reports of violence in the Tombia area but was unable to confirm any details as the area was not accessible by road and his men had been busy all day providing security for the inauguration.
The fighting occurred in the area of the Cawthorne Channel, where there are pipelines and oil-producing facilities that have been attacked and shut down several times since violence in the delta intensified 18 months ago.
The crisis in the vast wetlands is rooted in communities’ anger over decades of neglect by corrupt governments that were enriched by petrodollars flowing from the delta. Most villages have no electricity, clean water, roads or decent schools.
Militants demand local control over oil revenues and compensation from oil companies for pollution, but behind the fiery rhetoric much of the violence is motivated by money.
Politicians pay unemployed youths to intimidate voters or opponents, smugglers make hefty profits from a dangerous trade in stolen crude while criminals frequently kidnap foreign workers for ransom. Different armed groups are currently holding about 24 foreigners across the delta.