Army deploys more troops to protect Delta oil installations

Nigeria's military authorities said on Tuesday they were deploying more troops to quell two weeks of ethnic unrest in the Niger Delta that cut the country's oil output by more than 40 percent. Witnesses said more than 1,000 navy and army troops and three frigates were seen at the waterfront of the oil town of Warri, heading towards an oil export terminal of the transnational ChevronTexaco located in the Escravos area. It is in this area that most of the fighting between militants of the Ijaw and the Itsekiri ethnic groups, and between Ijaws and the military, has occurred in the past two weeks. "We have had to take in more troops to further secure the facilities and make sure they'll never be compromised," Nigerian army spokesman Col. Chukwuemeka Onwuamaegbu told IRIN. He said the military has been able to secure all the major oil facilities in the area, including the ChevronTexaco Escravos export terminal and the Forcados export terminal operated by Royal/Dutch Shell. Onwuamaegbu said the military would next turn its attention to smaller facilities in more remote locations, where vulnerable military posts had been attacked by militants, resulting in a number of military casualties. More than 3,000 soldiers are currently deployed in the area. About 100 people, including at least 10 soldiers, have been killed since violence broke out early this month between Ijaws and Itsekiris in connection with a dispute over the distribution of electoral wards ahead of April general elections. The violence escalated after a shootout between troops and Ijaw militants on 12 March, in which five soldiers were killed. Ijaw militants accused the military of siding with the Itsekiri and of killing more than 55 fighters and an unknown number of unarmed villagers in raids. Militants of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities have threatened to blow up 11 oil facilities they have seized if the military raids continued. The facilities belong to Royal/Dutch Shell, ChevronTexaco and TotalFinaElf. The violence reduced output by some 800,000 barrels a day or 40 percent of Nigeria's crude oil production.