Unknown gunmen killed four community chiefs in a remote part of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, kidnapping eight others who were travelling in the same boat, police said on Monday.
A police spokeswoman in Port Harcourt, the delta’s main city, said the chiefs and the other travellers were from a community called Kula, in the coastal area of Rivers state, and it was unclear why they had come under attack in the creeks.
“Four chiefs were killed, eight others were taken away and two were left with bullet wounds,” said the spokeswoman.
Kula is one of many communities in the Niger Delta that play host to the oil industry. It was unclear what prompted the attack.
The security situation in the delta worsened in 2006 and many fear it will deteriorate further in the build-up to the Nigerian elections scheduled for April as armed men sponsored by local politicians return to action.
The delta accounts for all of OPEC member Nigeria’s oil production but poverty fuels militancy and crime in its remote, mangrove-lined creeks and a fifth of oil production capacity is shut down due to attacks.
A militant group fighting for local control over oil assets has been holding captive three Italians and one Lebanese employed by Italian oil firm Agip since Dec. 7 in another part of the delta.
Five Chinese telecom workers are also being held hostage in Rivers state after they were kidnapped for ransom on Jan. 5.
The poorly trained and equipped armed forces are unable to control the delta’s thousands of waterways. Kidnappings, attacks on oil facilities, conflicts between communities and turf wars between gangs of oil smugglers are all common.