(Reuters) – Rival armed factions in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta battled in an apparent turf war for the second time this week, killing at least one civilian, security officials said on Friday.
Dozens of armed men exchanged gunfire in Abonnema, around 14 km (9 miles) west of the main oil industry city of Port Harcourt.
“Today’s clashes were between two rival armed groups involved in bunkering (stealing oil) who were fighting over territories. One civilian was killed,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, army spokesman for Rivers state, whose capital is Port Harcourt.
A security source said a woman was killed in the cross fire and many shops were torched.
The clashes come two days after at least four people were killed, including one soldier, in similar fighting in the same village.
The military was not involved in the gunfight on Friday, Musa said.
The fighting underscores the deteriorating security situation in the delta, the hub of Nigeria’s 2 million barrels per day industry. The unrest has shut down around a fifth of output and helped push global energy prices to record highs.
Criminal gangs have taken advantage of the breakdown in law and order and the instability has become as much about control of a lucrative trade in stolen oil and abductions for ransom as about a political struggle.
Security sources said they believed the clash was between fighters loyal to two rival faction leaders — Soboma George and Egberi Papa.
Wednesday’s fighting involved gunmen loyal to George and Farah Dangogo, another factional leader.
Nigeria is the world’s eighth biggest exporter of crude oil but a sizeable proportion of its output is stolen by thieves who either drill into pipelines or hijack barges loaded with oil.
Some estimates put the amount of crude stolen from the delta at 100,000 barrels per day, equivalent to around $12.5 million daily or $4.6 billion a year at current prices.