NIGERIA:
Russian tanker seized with suspected stolen oil
LAGOS, 22 October (IRIN) - Nigeria is holding a Russian ship and its
22
crew members for carrying 11,300 metric tons of crude oil suspected to
have been stolen from the southeastern oil-rich Niger Delta region, the
navy said on Wednesday.
The MT African Pride, was seized on Nigerian coastal waters on 8
October.
It was found carrying the biggest consignment of crude oil out of 14
ships
seized since January, Rear Admiral Antonio Ibinabo Bob-Manuel,
commander
of Nigeria?s western naval command, told reporters.
The crew of 18 Russians, two Romanians and two Georgians were taken
into
custody while investigations continue, Bob-Manuel said.
The crew, he added, would be charged in court soon in accordance with
Nigerian law.
Nigerian officials estimate that 10-15 percent of the two million
barrels
of crude oil that the country produces daily, is stolen by
sophisticated
criminal gangs that illegally tap the oil from pipelines and load it
onto
vessels for sale abroad.
Security agencies also blame the illegal trade for the supply of
weapons
used by ethnic militants in the oil region where violence has killed
more
than 200 people this year and severely disrupted oil operations.
To try and improve the situation, Nigeria this year deployed three war
ships donated by the United States to check unrest and crude oil theft
in
the Niger Delta, navy officials said.
The former US Coast Guard ships were refurbished and sent to Nigeria
by
the US Defence Department at the cost of US $3.5 million each. The
ships
came without arms and ammunition, but were fitted with canons and
machine
guns by the Nigerian authorities before deployment.
Four additional refurbished US ships are scheduled for delivery to the
Nigerian navy before the end of the year.[
Fresh violence threatens fragile truce in Niger delta
WARRI, 23 October (IRIN) - Fresh ethnic clashes around the Nigerian oil
town of Warri have claimed several lives over the past week,
threatening a fragile ceasefire secured between rival tribal militias in the
troubled Niger Delta, residents said on Thursday.
More than a dozen people have been killed since Saturday in violent
clashes between armed groups from the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo tribes,
the main ethnic groups inhabiting the Warri area, they said.
Ijaw militant leader Bello Oboko said a boatload of Ijaws, mostly women
and children were attacked on Tuesday by armed men while travelling
between the riverside towns of Ogulagha and Burutu. He blamed the attack -
in which he said four people died - on rival Itsekiri militants.
?It was an unprovoked attack, targeting innocent women and children,?
he told IRIN.
But Daniel Iremiji, who leads the Itsekiri Youths Council, denied it
was a premeditated attack. He blamed Ijaws instead for sparking the
latest clashes.
?The Itsekiris merely counter-attacked after our people had been
attacked by Ijaws at a village called Orugbo,? he told IRIN. Iremiji said
more than 18 people were killed in that incident, while another 20 were
still missing after escaping into the bush.
A further indication of the escalating scale of violence was a reported
clash between Ijaw and Urhobo villages on Saturday, in which several
people were reported to have died.
Ijaws and Urhobos have in the past been allies against the Itsekiri,
who are perceived by both groups to be getting more than their fair share
of benefits accruing from oil operations in the western Niger Delta.
But the alliance appears threatened by the clashes between the Urhobo
village of Okwagbe and the Ijaw village of Ayakoromo in Burutu local
council area over a land dispute.
Concern over the latest developments prompted a security meeting on
Tuesday presided over by Delta State Governor James Ibori. It was attended
by Major-General Elias Zamani, the head of a special military task
force created by President Olusegun Obasanjo after violence in the delta
earlier this year claimed more than 200 lives.
?It was decided at the meeting to deploy more troops in all the
flashpoints to prevent the violence from further escalating,? an aide to the
Delta State governor said afterwards.
At the heart of the violence are claims and counter-claims to the
ownership of oil-rich land in a region whose inhabitants are mostly poor.
The individuals and communities who control the land mop up the many
benefits that can be extracted from the oil companies whose wells have
been drilled there.
The Ijaws and Urhobos accuse Obasanjo's government of favouring the
Itsekiris.