Troops deployed in Niger Delta as unrest worsens

Hundreds of troops were being deployed on Thursday to contain unrest in the waterways near the southern Nigerian town of Warri, located in the troubled Niger Delta, where communal violence has killed more than 15 people over the past week and disrupted the operations of oil transnationals. Nigerian navy spokesman Capt Shinebi Hungiapuko said the troops were being sent to end the violence that has pitted militants from the Ijaw ethnic group against security forces and their Itshekiri neighbours and to restore order. "Our navy men are being sent there to quell the turbulence," he told IRIN. Oil giant Shell, whose logistics base in the northern swamps of the Niger Delta was burnt down by Ijaw militants on Monday, said it had been forced to close 10 oil pumping stations - producing some 126,000 barrels per day of crude oil - in the area. ChevronTexaco, one of whose contract workers was killed by a stray bullet during an attack on villages near its Escravos oil export facility on the same day, said on Wednesday it had shut down three of its facilities - producing about 30,000 barrels of crude daily - and evacuated staff to safety. On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters beseiged TotalFinaElf's gas plant at Obite and nearby facilities in the eastern Niger Delta, forcing their closure, the oil company said. A company spokesman said the protesters alleged that TotalFinaElf had not delivered on promises to provide them with amenities and jobs. He said that following a meeting with leaders of the protest, the company hoped to resume operations on Thursday. But violence in the western Niger Delta around Warri showed no sign of abating. Shell said a helicopter evacuating its employees from shut facilities was hit by gunfire on Tuesday but was able to land safely. The company has continued to evacuate personnel from the strife-torn area. Activists of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) accused troops of sparking the latest round of violence in the volatile oil region by launching a raid on the Ijaw community of Okerenkoko last week, killing five people. The soldiers had accused community members of planning to disrupt the oil operations of Shell in the area and to attack Itshekiri villages, they said. Warri has been tense since February, when a violent dispute broke out between the Urhobo and Itshekiri communities over the delineation of electoral wards ahead of April-May general elections. Ijaws sided with the Urhobo, alleging that the sharing of wards favoured the Itshekiri. The tension in the Warri area has added to apprehension that the coming elections, the first since a 1999 vote that ended more than 15 years of military rule, might be marred by violence. Supporters of rival political parties have clashed in various parts of the country while several political assassinations have been recorded nationwide. President Olusegun Obasanjo, who met with leaders of other political parties in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday to seek ways to curb the violence, said it risked jeopardising the success of the polls. "The level of violence we are witnessing today poses an unacceptable threat to the forthcoming election," he said.