Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain announced on Tuesday that Britain would provide scholarships for indigenes of the Niger Delta in an effort to improve the lot of people living in the oil-producing area, news organisations reported on Wednesday.
Three additional scholarships, under an existing worldwide scheme known as Chevening scholarships, are to be offered, probably for post-graduate study on environment-related subjects in Britain, an official at the Deputy British High Commission in Lagos told IRIN on Wednesday.
Communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region have been demanding a greater share of the area’s wealth for several years and acts of violence, including oil installation sabotage and kidnappings of oil workers, have been attributed to militant youths from some of these communities.
Hain arrived in Sierra Leone on Wednesday and was scheduled to fly to Ghana on Thursday.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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