Scorching Earth & People In The Niger Delta

… the re-branding Nigeria project has succeeded in rebranding everyone in the Niger Delta militants, including women, children, governors, aged, kings, chiefs, physically challenged et al. – Niger Delta Women

Arms and ammunition recovered from militant camps in Delta State... on Thursday May 21. Sola Adebayo

The destruction of the Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta is terrorizing people into fleeing their homes and creating thousands of internally displaced persons. The JTF and the House of Representatives have threatened to attack “militants” in Ondo, Bayelsa, and Rivers states. People in the communities in those states are fleeing, as they are terrified by what happened to the communities of Delta State.

ABUJA, 22 May 2009 (IRIN) – Thousands of civilians have fled their villages in Nigeria’s Delta state after government troops launched an offensive against militant groups in the state on 13 May.

Villagers in Delta state’s Gbramatu kingdom reported Oporoza and Okerenkoko villages being attacked with heavy machine-gun fire from low-flying helicopters on 15 May. Eyewitness accounts reported at least 100 bodies, according to Amnesty International’s Nigeria campaigner Lucy Freeman.

The Nigerian Red Cross estimates that 1,000 displaced people have fled to Ogbe Ijoh – capital of Warri south government area – where they are sheltering in a primary school and hospital.

Witnesses report that about 3,000 people have fled and Amnesty International estimates that as many as 10,000 could be on the move.

Patricia Okolo from Okerenkoko told IRIN from Ogbe Ijoh: “I had to run from my home. I did not take a single item with me. I have 10 children but I don’t know where any of them are. I could not count the number of people who were killed or injured but there were many. I could not even count.”

“I don’t know where my husband is. I am the only one who got here.”

Most of the displaced are women and children as most men are too frightened of being attacked or killed, said Nigerian Red Cross officer Egbero Ococity from Ogbe Ijoh. Many men are hiding in the forest with no access to clean water, food or shelter, he said.
…
“They [the displaced] need food, water, shelter and blankets to relieve their suffering,” the Red Cross’s Ococity told IRIN. “They are sleeping on the bare floor. They are traumatised as a result of the attacks and what they went through in the mangroves while escaping.

“You can see the frustration in their faces. Hunger is taking its toll because most of them did not have anything to eat for four days.”
…
The offensive suggests a “worrying change in direction” in the government’s approach, Freeman told IRIN. In recent months a government committee recommended amnesty for some politically-motivated militants.

In February 2009 the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua assured the UN Human Rights Council it would refrain from military offensives in the Delta region because of the risk of loss of innocent lives.

In my previous post I quoted from the statement of the Ijaw elders and leaders: The Systematic Destruction of the Ijaw. The women of the Niger Delta have issued the statement: Niger Delta Women call for an end to genicide, excerpted below:

… the Yar’adua administration has manufactured its own excuse for a greater massacre of Niger Delta women and children under the guise of fishing out militants. Beginning Wednesday, May 13, 2009 the Joint Task Force has been bombing Kurutie, Kokodiagbene, Kunukunuma, Oporoaza and Okerenkoko communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta State, killing innocent persons, majority of them, women and children. Many more persons are rendered homeless; the Punch of Monday, May 18, 2009 reported that about 20,000 people are trapped in these riverine communities because the waterways are blocked by the JTF.

The displaced persons who took refuge in the Ogbe-Ijoh General Hospital were further made to flee the camp due to the invasion by soldiers from the Joint Task Force. As at Tuesday, May 19, 2009, the soldiers proceeded to carry out a house to house gruesome burning of persons and properties Okerenkoko community. The implication is that the re-branding Nigeria project has succeeded in rebranding everyone in the Niger Delta militants, including women, children, governors, aged, kings, chiefs, physically challenged et al.

Thousands of harmless women and children have been killed while some are displaced. Schooling has been disrupted for a great majority of children in the Gbaramatu kingdom of Niger Delta; having access to food and shelter has suddenly become a luxury; safety & security is far from the people; development has become a mockery; access to sanitary facilities for the women is out of the question. Many are scrambling to safety but no thoroughfare. The cries of the Niger Delta women have re-echoed. The Federal government is the killer of women and children. Instead of giving them food, education, health and security; the women and children of the Niger Delta are given bullets, blood, grief and poverty. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
…
WE SAY NO TO THE JOINT TASK FORCE!
WE SAY NO TO THE GRUESOME MURDER OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE NIGER DELTA!!
WE SAY NO TO MILITARY INVASION OF THE NIGER DELTA!!!

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes in an essay in Curse of the Black Gold:

I have heard from many well-to-do Nigerians who, in the midst of talking about the unrest, the corruption, the underdevelopment in the Niger Delta, equate everything to these words: “the problem of the Niger Delta is that the Ijaw are too lazy.”

This is the language of discrimination. When we discriminate against a group of people, we call them lazy, stupid, ignorant, greedy, promiscuous, unhygienic. These words, individually or in combination, should serve as an immediate warning that discrimination is taking place. This language allows the majority, or minorities that hold power, to oppress and even slaughter an inconvenient group of people. They can feel comfortable with themselves by using these words. Whatever actions they take against the group may then be called “unfortunate”, but “necessary”, or even “for the best”.

Nigeria’s House of Representatives has endorsed the JTF’s violence in the Delta:

N’Delta Crisis: House Backs Military Action
From Onwuka Nzeshi in Abuja and Segun James in Warri, 05.22.2009

Amidst protests and rowdiness, the House of Representatives yesterday threw its weight behind the ongoing military operation in parts of Delta State.
They also demanded that the onslaught against militant groups in the area be extended to Bayelsa and Rivers States to forestall the relocation of the militants to other parts of the Niger Delta.
The lawmakers said given the large scale criminality associated with the militant groups, it would be an aberration for the Federal Government to continue to tolerate their excesses or halt the military from crushing their apparent insurrection against the Nigerian state.
…
Although Hon. Daniel Metu and Hon. Tam Brisibe backed Agoda on the call for restraint, their resistance soon crumbled as the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Mohammed Ibn N’Allah (PDP, Kebbi), took the floor by storm and unleashed a tirade of verbal attacks on the militants. …
We can do away with 20 million militants for the rest 120 million Nigerians to live,” N’Allah said.

This comment was also quoted in Punch as: “for the survival of 100 million Nigerians, we can do away with 20 million.”

[from N’Delta Crisis…]The comment sparked off widespread protests amongst lawmakers from the Niger Delta region who demanded a withdrawal of the statement and apologies.
There was tension and proceedings of the House were stalled for at least five minutes before N’Allah in a veiled retraction said it was a “parliamentary joke”.

Although communities have been terrified and destroyed, it is unclear if the actual militants have been hurt much at all. Tompolo is still alive and free. From the gun battle in Warri, the JTF alleged they captured 9 militants, assuming they are militants, and not just men who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sola Adebayo’s picture of the weapons seized is reproduced above. After bragging about all the heavy and high tech weaponry they seized from the militants, this was all the JTF had to display.

Abubakar disclosed that the suspected militants are now in JTF’s custody.
The JTF, however, failed to parade the suspects before newsmen when the Commander, Maj. Gen. Sakin Yakin Bello, addressed the world press on the activities of his command in the last one week.

Abubakar said the arrested men are “to assist the force in carrying out investigations to determine the level of their involvement in the militancy in the Niger Delta”.

In a twist, Bello declared High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo) wanted dead or alive – a week after the reports claimed the militant leader had been killed.
…
Journalists were surprised that no arrests were made during the JTF operation, a situation which gives the suspicion that every moving object in the area was killed by the invading soldiers.

The military paraded what they claimed were the weapons of the militants.
Journalists were shown rusted dane guns, normally used for hunting, unserviceable collection of old guns and dirty old machetes.

It would appear that the militants’ armoury was not as sophisticated as been claimed by the JTF.

No AK47 weapon, said to be the weapon of choice of the militants, was captured by the JTF, even though several militants have been said to have died in gun battle with the soldiers.

Bello refused to name the number of persons killed so far by his man, but declared that they were prepared to kill more, while also pursuing the militants to wherever they were known to hide.

Bello’s declaration followed persistent questions from journalists over the handling of the operation by the JTF whose soldiers invaded the Ogbe-Ijoh General Hospital to harass and arrest doctors who were treating victims of the military attack on communities in Gbaramatu kingdom area of Warri.
The action of the soldiers forced the management of the hospital to close down and discharge all the patients.

The commander denied knowledge of the hospital invasion, but promised that such would not repeat itself.
Bello admitted that a scanty number of weapons, including a pistol, a submachine gun, an Uzzi, a rifle, and a Mark IV, among others were captured from Tompolo’s personal house at Oporoza.

He denied that innocent persons were killed in the operation even when he was confronted with the fact that the attack took place on the day of a traditional festival for which a lot of people from far and near had come to Oporoza.

This Day reports that in the United States Congress Senator Feingold asked President Obama to become involved:

Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, Senator Russ Feingold, has asked President Barak Obama to intervene in the ongoing military action in the Niger Delta.

Feingold in a statement, issued in Washington yesterday said “I urge the Obama administration to think creatively about how we can work multilaterally to help end this long standing crisis in the Niger Delta.

“Some military actions may be justified to stop the criminality, kidnappings and killings by militants in the Niger Delta, but such measures should be accompanied by a larger political strategy.”

“Genuine peacemaking will require not only legitimate political negotiations but a convincing case for transforming the illicit war economy into one of peace,” he stated.

Feingold lamented the killings of thousands of civilians since the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) began its operation in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri, Delta State, about a week ago, to fish out militants taking refuge in parts of the Kingdom. He said in order to achieve a lasting peace in the region, federal government “needs to undertake a serious and sustained initiative to address the underdevelopment of the region.”
…
Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Mr. Johnnie Carson, has described Nigeria as the US’ most important strategic partner in the African continent. He disclosed this at the meeting with members of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum led by the chairman, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in Washington, last Wednesday. The Governors are in the US on a working visit. The team include Alhaji Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State.

Carson expressed the need to strengthen the relationship between Nigeria and the US, while promising to push the process that will further deepen the US-Nigeria relationship. He commended the Governors for their patriotic initiative and assured them of his commitment to their cause. He said his doors were open to the Governors Forum at all times.
Carson also described the Governors’ visit as a new dawn in US-Nigeria relationship, “This is a new dawn in the relationship between our two countries. We have never had it so good,” he said. He noted that the Governors were the first foreign visitors he was receiving since he resumed office on Monday, last week.
…
The Governors also visited the Capitol Hill, America’s legislative power house where they had a meeting with Black America’s most powerful congresswoman, Mrs. Sheila Jackson-Lee.
Welcoming the Governors to her office, Jackson-Lee observed that the visit was the first by any delegation of Governors from Africa to any congress person on the Capitol Hill. She said she would be leading a delegation of the congress to “West African sub-region very soon”.
She commended Nigeria for her efforts in global peace-keeping, especially in Dafur, Liberia and Sierra-Leone.

The displacement continues in N’Delta communities. People are fleeing their homes in terror seeing what the JTF has done in Delta State, and hearing the threats that more is coming. We could call this state sponsored terrorism, and not be wrong. From the Punch:

Following the ongoing military onslaught against militants in the Niger Delta region, some Ijaw living in coastal areas of Ondo State have begun fleeing their communities for fear of being attacked by the men of the Joint Task Force.
…

Eleitu-Uguoji who is the National Coordinator of the Ijaw Consultative Forum blamed the indiscriminate attack of civilian settlements in Delta State for the apprehension among Ijaw people all over the country.

He added that the people were afraid because they believed that the men of the JTF were looking for Ijaw people since it was difficult to distinguish a militant from innocent civilians.

He explained that although community leaders were appealing to people in their areas not to panic, he stated that it was not possible to prevent them from fleeing due to the news of killing and maiming of innocent civilians in Ijaw communities in Delta State.

He said, “Although we have not seen either military presence nor militants‘ presence in our communities the people are afraid and they are leaving, especially the women and the children.

“They are afraid because militancy is not written on anybody‘s face and it will be almost impossible to know who is a militant among the crowd.
…

“With this development, even if the soldiers wipe out all the militants today more militants will still rise up if our areas are not developed.”

The Special Adviser to the Ondo State Governor on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Bekekimi Idiarhi, told our correspondent on the telephone that he was not aware of movement of Ijaw in Ondo State to safer places. But he said that there was palpable fear among the Ijaw people living along the coast from Ondo State to Akwa Ibom State .

 

Niger Delta Communities Under Assault by Nigerian JTF

Nigeria from the Escravos oil installation area on the left to Warri on the right. This is the area of the Gbaramatu communities.

There are no roads in the Creeks area of the Niger Delta; village residents must paddle everywhere. Gas flare and oil installation in background. Oporoza, Niger Delta, August 2006. photo: Kendra E. Thornbury

Oporoza Library, which was attacked, at its dedication in 2005, see the library link below for more information, and links to more pictures.

Reports of severe violence are coming in from the vicinity of Escravos near Warri in the Niger Delta. The JTF, Joint Task Force of the Nigerian Federal Government, the FG, attacked several villages and Camp 5, the headquarters of the MEND chief, Tompolo. They brought 7000 troups, 2 warships, and 14 gunboats. Four Ijaw communities have been attacked, and may be destroyed: Oporoza, Kunukunuma, Okerenkoko and Kurutie. The JTF has a history of making reprisals on innocent civilian communities, and destroying them, for the actions of militants and criminals, Odioma and Aker Base are two examples.

From the Vanguard:

Some community leaders from Gbaramatu who managed to escape alive from Friday’s bombardment of some Ijaw communities by the JTF said the number of casualties were high as they were many people who came from far and near to Oporoza for the Amaseikumor festival.

From Punch, by Sola Adebayo in Warri, May 16:

Twenty-four hours to the end of the ultimatum issued by the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta to oil companies operating in the region to evacuate their employees and shut down, the Federal Government on Friday, launched a major operation to dislodge the militants.

MEND had on Wednesday engaged troops of the Joint Task Force in a fierce battle in which several soldiers were feared dead and their weapons seized. The militants also took 15 foreigners hostage.

Saturday Punch learnt that President Umaru Yar‘Adua was angry about the number of casualties on the part of the JTF and consequently ordered that camps of the militants must be invaded and their leaders captured dead or alive.

As a result, two warships and 14 gunboats were in the early hours of Friday deployed in the coastal Ijaw communities in Delta State. Four helicopter gunboats were also deployed to attack the identified militants‘ hideouts and camps.

Sources said that some Ijaw communities like Oporoza, Kunukunuma, Okerenkoko and Kurutie where leaders of the militant groups are believed to be hiding also came under heavy bombardment by the JTF troops. Unconfirmed reports said the communities had been razed as at 3pm on Friday.

The popular Camp 5 operated by a well known militant, Chief Government Ekpomukpolo, alias Tompolo, in Delta State, was also reportedly razed. The fate of the warlord and his lieutenants could not be ascertained as at 4 pm on Friday.

No fewer than 3,000 troops were involved in the operation in the riverside Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. The Ijaw enclave housed the popular militant Camp 5 and Iroko Camp, which the JTF had been itching to invade and take over in the last 10 years.

It was gathered that the troops were mandated to dislodge the militants from the two camps and regain control of the area.

No fewer than 12 soldiers, including a lieutenant were feared killed in Wednesday‘s battle. It was learnt that 13 others sustained serious injuries before the embattled soldiers were forced to retreat following the superior firepower of the warlords.

Saturday Punch investigation further showed that about 20 military weapons were seized by the militants. The militants hijacked two ships.

Already, one soldier whose body has been recovered, has been declared dead while 11 others have been declared missing by authorities of the JTF.

…

Indications that the JTF was prepared to avenge the killings emerged on Thursday night when movement of soldiers and military equipment into Warri Port for onward journey to Gbaramatu communities and the two militants‘ camps was noticed.

Efforts by the Delta State government and notable Ijaw leaders to stave off the operation were rebuffed by authorities of the JTF, who politely told them that it had been ordered “from above”. It was gathered that Dike, an indigene of the state, who was also contacted to shelve the exercise said it was beyond him.

Consequently, by 5am on Friday, two naval warships identified as NNS Obula and NNS Nwanba as well as 14 gunboats had settled down for business in Camp 5 and at Gbaramatu, Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Kunukunuma and Kurutie.

Saturday Punch also gathered that four helicopter gunboats on the fleet of the Nigerian Air Force embarked on air surveillance and rendered air support.

An Ijaw youth, who managed to escape from the scene, told Saturday Punch on the telephone that, ”Oporoza, Kunukunuma, Okerenkoko and Kurutie towns and Camp 5 in Gbaramatu kingdom in Delta State had been invaded from the air and the river.”

However, Saturday Punch learnt that heavy shooting between the militants and the soldiers still persisted as at 2:30pm on Friday as the warlords mounted stiff resistance at Camp 5.

”What is going on in Gbaramatu Kingdom as I am talking to you now (2:30 pm) is a total war between the militants and the Federal Government. You can call it a show of strength because both sides are well equipped and appeared ready for the battle. The picture is not very clear yet but the troops have burnt some Ijaw communities and the notorious Camp 5 have been razed,” a source said.

The spokesman of JTF, Col. Rabe Abubakar, confirmed the operation but hastily added that it was premature to comment on its details. Abubakar said the federal troops were merely on a rescue operation in the area.

Abubakar said the troops were deployed to rescue the hostages, free hijacked ships and fish out the hoodlums who attacked military personnel on legitimate duties on Wednesday.

He said, ”We (JTF) deliberately went on search and rescue operation in some coastal communities in Delta State. The idea was to apprehend and fish out criminals who are involved in abduction of crew members of two ships and those behind the hijack of the ships. We are also after the criminals who attacked our personnel on legitimate duties.

”But in the process, the so-called militants mounted resistance and this expectedly led to a serious gun duel and they retreated to their camps and hideouts. Our men also pursued them to the camps and hideouts. There is no further detail for now, but heavy shooting is persisting as you are talking to me now.”

The Ijaw National Leader, in his reaction said the Federal Government had declared total war on the Ijaw nation.

Clark said, ”The military (JTF) has declared total war on our people in Escravos in Delta State. They are bombing from the air and water, killing innocent children and women in Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Kurutie and Kunukunuma. They (Ijaw people) are seeking for safety in the bush. “Please intervene immediately by telling Mr. President not to declare total war on fellow Nigerians particularly when the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan [from the Delta], is away in Europe on official mission.

One of the villages under attack, Oporoza, was host to the people who made the movie Sweet Crude. They send out an email which contained the following information:

There are conflicting reports, but we do know from a friend who called from the bush, where village residents have fled, that the military has opened fire and there are casualties.

We received this text message from one of the film’s main characters:

“The situation is getting worse every minute. Their plan is to wipe Oporoza out of the surface of Earth tomorrow morning.

The leader of the JTF force has claimed the hostages have been rescued, although one hostage was killed, quite possibly by the JTF. However other reports say that MEND still has the hostages. Reports coming in today, Monday, say 9 hostages have been recovered by the JTF. By the time you read this those numbers may have changed. The militants have blown up two major pipelines, one of which was just repaired at great expense. The Vanguard reports:

MEND said it had sabotaged two oil and gas pipelines near to Escravos which supply the 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) Kaduna refinery in northern Nigeria, shut down for maintenance in November.
…
The pipeline transports crude produced by Chevron-Texaco to the Warri Refinery and Petrchemical Company (WRPC). It is also used to channel imported heavy crude to the Kaduna Refinery. It was damaged by militants some years ago and its repairs gulped a huge sum of money.
…
Tompolo not dead: A top aide of the leader of Camp Five, popularly known as Tompolo, who was reported to have been killed, however, told Sunday Vanguard, “Nothing happened to him, he is alive”. He also said all the 15 hostages were Filipinos, but the JTF said it rescued six Filipinos and four Nigerians. His words, “All the 15 hostages were Filipinos. Two died and three were seriously injured during yesterday’s (Friday) aerial attack on camp 5.

The city of Warri was being considered as one of the hosts of the Under 17 World Cup. FIFA officials were due to visit this week, but that visit has been called off. Officials in Warri said there was no danger and no worry. But they may find themselves out of the running to participate in the cup.

The JTF is said to be in persuit of Gbaramatu leaders, and may be pursuing them into Warri:

We hear that Okerenkoko is next in their plan to attack and that they are even planning to trail Gbaramatu leaders staying in Warri and arrest them, this will be a dangerous development …

And from Business Day:

Reacting to comments by some groups whom he called “MEND supporters” who allegedly raised alarm that the JTF used aircraft to bomb communities, Abubakar said such comments were wrong as JTF was adopting normal convention of Cordon and Search as no responsible military would carry out actions that would be detrimental to the existence of innocent citizens.

Given the history of JTF thuggery and its targeting of civilian communities, I don’t give this denial much credit for truthfulness. The Punch reports the crisis is escalating:

Also killed in the fighting, in which about 20,000 people are said to be trapped, was another Filipino hostage and a nine-year-old child.

Three more Filippino were, however, freed from the militants and one helicopter recovered by the JTF operatives during the attacks in Kurutie, Kokodiagbene, Kunulunuma, Oporoza and Okerenkoko in Gbaramatu clan, all in Warri South- West Local Government Area of Delta State.

… an official of the Delta State Government, who craved anonymity, put the figure at 20,000. “It is true that about 5,000 people have been displaced, but the people trapped are just about 20,000,” he said.

The official craved anonymity because the state government was yet to comment officially.

When one of our correspondents visited the Ogbe-Ijoh General Hospital in Warri South- West LGA, about 5,000 displaced persons were seen weeping as efforts were being made by the council officials to rehabilitate them.

Some of the displaced persons, including seven youth corps members, gave horrifying accounts of their escape from the scenes of the fighting.

The spokesman of the corps members, Mr. Lanre Abayomi, said they were in a library in Oporoza when the JTF operatives invaded the community in jet fighters and gunboats.

Abayomi, who attributed their escape into Warri to divine intervention, claimed that many buildings were attacked from the air by the troops.
…
[JTF’s] Abubakar said, “The continuous search and rescue operations being carried out were aimed at criminals who made those areas their abode and made it impossible to rescue the remaining expatriates on board MT Spirit earlier hijacked by them.

There have been many claims and counter claims by the JTF and by MEND. The JTF says the militants are lifeless and homeless. MEND says Camp 5 will be the graveyard of the JTF. Reports vary on how much the oil companies are curtailing their activities, or evacuating their personnel. What is clear is that the local communities near the Escravos terminal are under attack, and that the civilians are the ones bearing the casualties and the suffering.

On April 3oth the International Crisis Group issued a briefing:

Since the Yar’Adua administration assumed office in May 2007, its initiatives for ending Delta violence have been ambiguous and at times incoherent. An early attempt to convene a Delta summit was aborted due to local opposition. A May 2008 proposal that militants incorporate as security companies so they could be hired to guard pipelines and other oil installations met with public scepticism and militants’ rejection and never got off the ground. Creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in September 2008 initially drew mixed reactions, but low funding in the 2009 budget, an uncertain division of responsibilities with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and unclear guiding principles have cost it credibility.

…
On 7 January 2009, a number of the country’s leading civil society groups charged that Yar’Adua’s silence on the report showed he was only playing to the gallery on the Delta issue, and subsequent developments have done nothing to dispel those misgivings. The disclosure by a special adviser to the vice president two months after the report was submitted that yet another committee had been established to study the recommendations, coupled with the lack of any further response since then, are deepening doubts over the government’s sincerity. The longer these doubts grow, the more difficult it will become to engage all stakeholders in an effective peace process.The Technical Committee has been the government’s most promising effort to develop a coherent, long-term strategy in the Delta. Launched on 8 September 2008 with broad and credible membership, the committee was mandated to collate, review and distil all previous reports, memorandums and submissions and “make suggestions for Government’s necessary and urgent action”. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan pledged that its recommendations “will not be treated with levity”. It was widely believed that the government would adopt those recommendations as its definitive roadmap for resolving the region’s crisis.

Right now it does not look like there is much interest in resolving the crisis. It would be interesting to know if the US Africa Command was acting in any advisory capacity in this exercise. I have no particular reason to suppose it is. However the US has been pouring arms into Nigeria for years, and the numbers soared during the Bush administration. The Africa Command was initially set up largely to safeguard Nigerian oil for the US market. This exercise in violence by the Nigerian government does not seem to be safeguarding anything. The US has demonstrated no serious interest to date in peaceful solutions to the crisis in the Delta. The Africa Command, and the mercenary contractors who are their camp followers, are studying to carry out counter insurgency operations in the Niger Delta. Counterinsurgency operations include attacks like these on Delta communities. The mercenary contractors already have a heavy presence in the Delta, in violation of Nigerian law.

As of today, Monday:

A source told Daily Independent at the weekend that production loss to the on-going violence was over 250, 000 barrels per day as foreign firms remove all but essential staff from the areas.

Chevron, the source added, could soon declare a force majeure on oil from the Escravos operation, while the Shell Petro-leum and Development Company (SPDC) has commenced the evacuation of its staff from the swamp and offshore locations in response to threat by the militants to attack oil workers.

Fears that the violent clash in the region of Nigeria could cause price surge also gripped traders at the global market as transaction resumes Monday. … traders believed that the renewed violence in Nigeria could single-handedly skyrocket the price.

And this is what most of the world cares about. We are largely indifferent to the fate of the local people whose land contains the oil, but who receive no benefit from it. The local people receive instead severe pollution and violent assault. I would like to think this current assault is an aberration, but I suspect it is a big step towards an escalation.