Ijaw militants unafraid

Despite the army’s show of force, Ijaws warned on Wednesday they would continue their violence until the Warri Southwest Council’s headquarters was relocated from the Itsekiri town of Ogidigben to the Ijaw town of Ogbe-Ijoh. The spokesman of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, George Timinimi, said the federal government needed to act fast on their demands if peace was to be achieved. “He was reacting to the call made on Tuesday by the Delta State governor, James Ibori, who sued for peace after meeting with the leaders of the three ethnic groups: Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo,” The newspaper said. The IJC’s Akingbulu told IRIN that today’s crisis between the two communities started when Nigeria’s late military leader, General Sani Abacha, created a local government in an Ijaw area and after three weeks moved it to an Itsekiri area that already had three local governments. However, the Itsekiri Survival Movement (ITSURMOV) said in an open letter to the Nigerian media on Friday that Warri North, South and Soutwest local government areas were “from time immemorial” the homeland of the Itsekiri. The movement claimed that their “homeland” was “legally defined, the legal ownership of which has been declared and acknowledged by the highest courts in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom”. Meanwhile, the Escravos-War waterway remained tense because Ijaw youths had blocked it, according to ‘The Guardian’. As a result, it was difficult to deliver food and medical supplies to people who had escaped to villages near Escravos. The result has been rising food prices, the paper said. Despite this, it said, calm has returned to other towns.