25 die in renewed Delta violence, women seize oil facility

Renewed fighting between militias from the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups in Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta have killed at least 25 people in the past week and displaced hundreds, residents said on Tuesday. And in yet another incident underlining escalating restiveness in the region, women protesters occupied an oil facility belonging to oil giant Royal/Dutch Shell to back demands for jobs and amenities for their community while an employee of Chevron-Texaco has been kidnapped by armed militants. An attack on Abi-Gborodo, an Itsekiri village on the bank of Warri River last Thursday in which at least 15 people were killed, was followed on Friday by an apparently retaliatory attack on the nearby Ijaw village on Mangorogbene in which 10 people were killed, local officials said. "The information we have now is that at least 25 people have died in these attacks," Mike Birisibe, an official of Warri North local government, where the incidents occurred, told IRIN. He said hundreds of people had fled their homes while several others were still missing, presumed injured and likely to die in the bush. He said attempts were made by armed attackers suspected to be Ijaw militants on Saturday and Sunday to invade the mainly Itsekiri town of Koko - still largely in ruins following attacks in April - but were repelled by troops now stationed there. The women protesters in the small rural town of Amukpe were holding a Shell facility there for the fourth week, accusing the oil transnational of failing to meet promises to provide them jobs and amenities. Shell workers vacated the oil pumping facility after the women began running shifts in their dozens to occupy it. Reivu Okposu, a spokesperson for the mostly middle-aged women, said their action was triggered by the refusal of Shell to let them continue using the giant gas flare produced in the Amukpe facility to dry their agricultural produce, especially cassava byproducts, "the only benefit of 33 years" of oil production on their land. "We now want to know why they should continue operating on our land," she told IRIN. A Shell spokesman confirmed the situation at Amukpe, but said the company had taken the action because the women were endangering themselves by going close to the flare, which burned round the clock as natural gas unwanted in the course of oil production was flared off. He said the company had decided not to employ the services of law enforcement agencies to remove the protesters but was instead negotiating a peaceful end to the standoff. Since last year women in the impoverished Niger Delta have taken an increasingly leading role in protests against oil companies, seen by the inhabitants as conniving with their government-joint venture partners to deby them access to the oil wealth produced on their land. In the past decade the region that produces almost all of Nigeria's key oil exports have witnessed increased restiveness, including kidnappings and hostage-taking by militant youths targeting oil companies. ChevronTexaco, another major transnational operator, said in a statement sent to IRIN on Tuesday that one of its Nigerian employees were seized on Friday by gunmen on his way to work in the oil town of Warri. The company said a group of Ijaw militants has claimed responsibility for the incident and have sent the company a list of demands, including money and support for their cause against rival Itsekiris. Company officials said they were seeking the intervention of government and community leaders to secure the release of the unnamed employee.