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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 05:01 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 05:01 |
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Immensely rich in oil and gas, the Niger Delta is the cornerstone of Nigeria's economy, but the southern region is a nightmare for both the authorities and its poor residents. Rebels on Monday announced their latest raid on a Shell oil facility, saying they had caused a "massive explosion" at the Forcados terminal and sunk a military gunboat with a score of troops aboard after a gun battle. President Umaru Yar'Adua, in office since May 2007, has officially made the Delta a priority, but sabotage and the clashes go on, oil production falls and grinding hardship is widespread. Monday's raid was claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) and confirmed by Shell, which reported a loss in production. However, the Delta's joint task force (JTF) of troops and police denied any clashes or deaths in its ranks. Since June 6, when Mend gave oil firms a 72-hour ultimatum to evacuate the Delta, rebels have claimed at least 14 attacks, including three on the US firm Chevron on June 15 and three on Royal Dutch Shell on June 21. The Italian firm Agip has not been spared. In May, only one such attack was reported. Yar’Adua in July 2008 promised a round-table meeting with all parties to the crisis in the Delta: federal authorities, the oil giants and representatives of local communities. But that came to nothing.  CONTINUES BELOW The president then set up a ministry for the Delta, tasked with developing the region, where foreign oil firms operate amid poverty and where Mend claims to be fighting to have the wealth benefit local people. In a latest step, Yar'Adua has offered an "amnesty and unconditional pardon to all persons who have directly or indirectly participated in the commission of offences associated with militant activities in the Niger Delta". Officials later specified that the 60-day amnesty will start on August 6 and end on October 4. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Major General Godwin Abbey spoke of ongoing "discussions with the militants". Yar'Adua offered no financial incentive to lay down arms and there was no talk of a disarmament, demobilisation and social reinsertion programme, like the DDR schemes in other African nations seeking to halt insurgency. Mend, which emerged in 2006 and became the main armed group, has thus far rejected any amnesty offer, but frequently targets installations run by the multinationals to force them temporarily to close down these sites. The figures speak for themselves. For three years, Nigeria has lost about a quarter or more of its daily production because of sabotage operations and the kidnapping of expatriate and local oil personnel. Amnesty International has announced that it will on Tuesday release a report revealing how decades of pollution and environmental damage caused by the oil industry in the Delta has caused serious and widespread violations of people’s rights to food, water, health and livelihood. The regional militants and the bandit gangs that rove the creeks of the Delta have brought current crude production to 1,8-million barrels a day compared with 2,6-million at the start of 2006. Yet Nigerian officials had dreamed of exporting four million barrels a day in 2010. "That was a challenge, an ambitious objective, but our production capacity isn't far short of 3,3-million," Deputy Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia recently said. Apart from the sabotage, several tens of thousands of barrels of oil a day are stolen by highly organised gangs that use hidden pipelines, barges and clandestine refineries. Those responsible have their "guardians" in high places. Though denying there is a war in the Delta, Nigeria's authorities have stepped up the role and strength of the JTF in recent months. After a number of troops were kidnapped, the JTF launched reprisals that led to reports of civilian casualties. "The military option has never brought peace anywhere. The government does what is possible to limit the use of force, but in any conflict, civilian losses are inevitable," Ajumogobia said. -- AFP TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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