Nigeria

[Petronas]

Muslim clashes in Nigerian city
Thursday, 24 February, 2005, 11:22 GMT

Three people have been killed in clashes between Shia and Sunni Muslims in a northern Nigerian city. Fighting broke out when a Shia group attacked Sunnis at a mosque in the city of Sokoto, in front of the Sultan of Sokoto's palace. Police say they made several arrests after the violence, which follows the killing of a Shia last weekend.

The BBC's Ibrahim Dosara in Sokoto says Shia are a minority among the predominantly Sunni population. Nigeria's 130 million people are roughly equally divided between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Correspondents say that poverty drives rival groups to compete for scarce resources, such as land.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4293567.stm

[Casey]

Nigeria welcomes Gnassingbe's resignation

Lagos - The chairperson of the African Union, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Saturday hailed the decision of Togo's army-installed leader Faure Gnassignbe to step down ahead of elections as a "victory for democracy".

"What happened in Togo was a coup d'etat dressed in the borrowed robes of democracy and we are glad that Faure Gnassingbe has finally realised the folly of what happened," said Obasanjo's spokesperson Remi Oyo.

Obasanjo had been the most vocal critic of the unconstitutional manoeuvre which saw Gnassingbe inherit Togo's presidency following the death three weeks ago of his father, long-serving autocrat Gnassingbe Eyadema.

After the "coup" both the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the African Union slapped diplomatic sanctions on Togo, demanding an immediate return to constitutional rule.

Gnassingbe finally backed down late on Friday, announcing in a televised address that he would step aside to allow a newly elected speaker of the national assembly, Abass Bonfoh, to organise elections as interim leader.

"This is a victory for the people of Togo, for Ecowas, for Africa and the world," Oyo said. "For the president of Nigeria this is a testimony to the fact that all Africa can stand together to fight for a cause.

"We stood our ground," she added. "For so long Africa has had a bad image. This is eloquent testimony that Africa can create solutions to its own problems." - Sapa-AFP

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw1109408760716B262

[Casey]

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Nigeria detains separatist militants

Friday, October 28, 2005 at 09:45 JST
LAGOS — Nigerian security forces have detained three of the country's most powerful militant leaders, officials said Thursday, as part of an apparent crackdown on the separatist forces threatening to tear Africa's most populous country apart.

In Lagos a magistrate ordered that two rival leaders of the Odua People's Congress (OPC) — an illegal armed faction set up to defend the interests of the Yoruba ethnic group — be held in prison while police prosecutors prepare to charge them with inciting murder and riots.

Meanwhile, secret police have raided the fortified compound of ethnic Igbo separatist leader Ralph Uwazuruike and are holding him incommunicado in the federal capital Abuja, according to a legal adviser to his Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

The arrests came one month after police detained Niger Delta warlord Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, who campaigns for the independence of the Ijaw people and their oil-rich homeland, and then also briefly held ethnic Ogoni rights activist Ledum Mittee for questioning.

"It appears that government is really cracking down on perceived members of the opposition. It is reminiscent of the military diktat and high-handedness the present government is practising," said political activist Beko Ransome-Kuti, who supports the idea of regional autonomy.
The crackdown also came as Nigerians nervously watch the build up to the 2007 election.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has led the country since the end of military rule in 1999, is due to step down at the end of two four-year terms.

If he honors his promise to do so, he will be replaced by whoever comes out on top after the next 18 months of what is expected to be bitter political warfare. (Wire reports)

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=353470

[Petronas]

A Nigerian terrorist group linked to al Qaeda claims Bellview plane crash that killed all 118 aboard
October 27, 2005, 12:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that a group identifying itself as Coalition for Militant Action in the Niger Delta (COMA) has claimed the crash on Oct. 23. COMA threatens more attacks on “Nigerian agents and infrastructure” until its leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari is released from detention. detained man has asked his followers to cease violent action, but they publicly rejected his request and threatened strikes against Nigeria’s oil pipelines.

The Nigerian group claims to be linked to al Qaeda and operating under the command of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. One theory is that the plane was brought down by a missile.

http://www.debka.com/

[Petronas]

the Martyrs' Brigade has claimed responsibility for the attackThis is not the Muslim part of Nigeria, but you have to wonder when you hear about a "Martyrs' Brigade".

Nigeria oil attack prompts alert
Thursday, 22 December 2005, 21:27 GMT

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has put security forces on high alert in the Niger Delta region after an attack on a key oil pipeline. He gave the order at a meeting with security and intelligence officials in the capital Abuja.

The apparent dynamite attack killed at least eight people and is expected to delay deliveries of more than 180,000 barrels per day for up to a week. Pipelines have been attacked in the region a number of times before. In other instances, pipelines have been cut by thieves to siphon off the oil. Some local residents have long claimed they do not benefit from the oil wealth.

Mr Obasanjo's spokesman, Remi Oyo, said the president had ordered all defence and security personnel in the region to be placed in a state of high alert. "We will not abandon this country to brigands. Criminals must be chased, caught and punished," the president was quoted in a statement as saying.

The attack occurred 50km (31 miles) west of the oil centre of Port Harcourt, said Shell, hitting its Bonny terminal. Andoni region local government chairman Monwan Etete said youths in four speed-boats had warned residents of local fishing villages to leave their homes shortly before the attack on Monday night. He said 21 villages had been affected, and some of those killed were children.

A previously unknown militia group calling itself the Martyrs' Brigade has claimed responsibility for the attack. After the incident, Anglo-Dutch Shell had to shut down two wells that supply the pipeline in the Niger Delta. The company involved "force majeure" to formally delay the shipments of oil. This is a legal term allowing a company to release itself from a contract due to unforeseen circumstances beyond its control. Nigeria is the world's eighth largest oil producer, and the largest in Africa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4554072.stm

[Casey]

Militants threaten new attacks against Nigerian oil

LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigerian militants who have sabotaged oil facilities and kidnapped workers in the southern Niger Delta said on Tuesday they would stage a series of attacks in the next few days to show oil companies their power.

In an e-mail statement, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which is holding four foreign hostages, also threatened to use more aggressive tactics against oil workers and their families in the vast wetlands region from February 1.

"In the next few days we will carry out a series of attacks to prove to all companies that we alone, your hosts, can guarantee your security," the statement said.

"Our operations will shift from the creeks into the cities where we will grind the Nigerian economy to a halt," it added.

The militants called on oil workers to leave the delta, which pumps almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels a day of oil.

The four foreign oil worker hostages held by the group spoke to Reuters by telephone on their sixth day in captivity on Monday, listing their captors' demands and warning the military against any attempted intervention or rescue. (Full story)

The four -- an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and a Honduran -- said they were being treated well, but that their living conditions were not comfortable.

On behalf of his captors, the Briton delivered a 48-hour ultimatum to the Nigerian government to accede to their demands and called for negotiations.

In Tuesday's statement, the group said: "With effect from February 1 2006 we will commence more aggressive tactics aimed at oil company workers and their families in the Niger Delta."

Oil workers evacuated
Royal Dutch Shell evacuated about 330 workers from four oil flow stations after the latest attack on Sunday, and is considering more withdrawals amid uncertainty over where the militants will strike next, a senior oil industry official said.

Two attacks last Wednesday hit Nigeria's oil output by 226,000 barrels a day, or 10 percent, and this production is still shut almost a week later.

The militants are fighting for local control of the Niger Delta's oil wealth, demand that Shell pay the local government $1.5 billion in compensation for pollution, and wants the release of three men including two ethnic Ijaw leaders, according to the demands read by the British hostage.

Analysts say the violence is also part of growing regional rivalry in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, ahead of presidential elections in 2007.

Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, one of the Ijaw leaders whose release was included in the kidnappers' demands, appeared on Tuesday in an Abuja court, where he faces treason charges.

He launched a blistering verbal attack on President Olusegun Obasanjo. "Obasanjo is a dictator and will pay for the crime he is committing against the people of this country," he said.

"Obasanjo is a murderer, a thief, a man who is stealing the resources of this country," the militant said. "He thought he could suppress the Ijaw people. The war is just beginning."

The possibility of further staff evacuations by Shell, Nigeria's largest producer, raises the prospect of deeper output cuts and will increase pressure on Obasanjo to crack down on the militants.

He held a high-level security meeting with delta governors and military officials in Abuja on Tuesday morning.

Poverty and wealth
Violence against oil workers is frequent in the Niger Delta, which accounts for almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels a day output and where an estimated 20 million people live in poverty alongside a multibillion-dollar industry.

Ruled by military dictators for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria returned to civilian government in 1999, but ethnic militia and organized thuggery remain a feature of political life.

Much of the rhetoric of militant Niger Delta groups is echoed by regional politicians, who have demanded a greater share of the oil wealth and the right to pick the ruling party candidate for elections in 2007.

The militants' threat to broaden their attacks helped drive up oil prices for a second day running, combining with worries about Iran's nuclear program to push London Brent crude prices up by 72 cents to $63.90 a barrel.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/01/17/nigeria.oil.reut

[al-Canine]

Nigeria oil 'total war' warning

A Nigerian militant commander in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta has told the BBC his group is declaring "total war" on all foreign oil interests.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has given oil companies and their employees until midnight on Friday night to leave the region.

It recently blew up two oil pipelines, held four foreign oil workers hostage and sabotaged two major oilfields.

The group wants greater control of the oil wealth produced on their land.

The warning came as militants and the army exchanged fire after a government helicopter gunship attacked barges allegedly used by smugglers to transport stolen crude oil.

Correspondents say the militants provide security for the smugglers.

Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports, but despite its oil wealth, many Nigerians live in abject poverty.

Aims

It is the first time the military leader of the Mend movement, Major-General Godswill Tamuno, has spoken publicly of his group's aims.

He refused to be interviewed on tape or for his location to be disclosed.

He told the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar that they had launched their campaign, called "dark February", to ensure that all foreign oil interests left.

He said that they had had enough of the exploitation of their resources and wanted to take total control of the area to get their fair share of the wealth.

Our correspondent says the movement brings together a variety of local Ijaw groups that had been operating in the Niger Delta before.

The group enjoys considerable local support and it is difficult to pinpoint exactly who is a member, he says.

Mend's leaders tend to like to be faceless, our reporter says, and they usually send statements to the media via email.

Shell, one of the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, told our reporter that security measures were being taken to secure their staff and property, but would not give details.

Well armed

The Niger delta has been the scene of a low-level war in recent months and the government has increased its military presence in the region.


After a government raid on oil barges earlier this week, Mend released a statement saying the helicopter gunship had fired rockets and machine-guns at targets on land and accused the military of targeting civilians.

It warned that its fighters were capable of shooting down military helicopters and accused Shell of helping out the security forces by allowing them use of an airstrip it operates.

The military has denied it used the facility.

According to AFP news agency, Shell has not confirmed or denied that its airstrip was the base for the attack.

The smugglers are believed to exchange oil for weapons from eastern Europe.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4723076.stm

Published: 2006/02/17 16:05:01 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[Petronas]

Nigeria cartoon protests kill 16
Sunday, 19 February 2006, 05:06 GMT

Sixteen people have been killed in northern Nigeria during protests by Muslims over the cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. Most of the deaths occurred in rioting in Maiduguri, capital of north-eastern Borno state. One person died in similar riots in north-central Katsina state. Witnesses said most of the dead were from Maiduguri's minority Christians. ...

The riots in Nigeria are the first violent protests in the country over the cartoons. Eleven churches were torched during the protests and Christian businesses targeted. The country is nearly equally split between Muslims in the north and Christians.

The BBC's Alex Last in northern Nigeria says the protest had begun peacefully in Maiduguri, and it was not clear what started the violence. The city's residents described demonstrators running wild after police tried to disperse the protest with teargas.

Crowds of protesters carried machetes, sticks and iron rods through the city centre, the Associated Press news agency reported. One group threw a tyre around one man, poured gas on him and set him ablaze, it said. Christian leader Joseph Hayab told Reuters agency that most of those who died had been Christians.

"The Muslim group came out to protest and the security forces tried to ensure it was peaceful, but there were some hoodlums in the crowd and somehow the security forces shot one or two of them," said Mr Hayab. "They went on the rampage, burning shops and churches of the Christians. The protesters killed the others. Some were even killed in the churches."

Soldiers have been deployed and a curfew imposed. Around 115 people were arrested in Maiduguri and 105 in Katsina. Borno state governor Modu Sheriff said the state "was shocked and disgusted" by "the civil disturbance" in Maiduguri. Nigeria has witnessed sectarian violence in the past, and the concern now is that the violence does not spread to other cities, our correspondent says. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4728616.stm

[keith]

US oil executive shot dead in Nigeria
By Austin Ekeinde



An executive of the U.S. oil service company Baker Hughes was killed in an apparently targeted attack in Nigeria's southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt on Wednesday, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was related to a five-month campaign by Niger Delta militants to cripple the oil industry in the world's eighth largest exporter, but a diplomat and an oil company source said they thought not.

"The American was shot by a man on a motorcycle. The motorcycle pulled up beside him and shot him," Rivers State Police Commissioner Samuel Agbetuyi told Reuters.

The Houston-based company, which drills oil wells and performs other services for big oil companies, was not immediately available for comment.

An oil company source said the gunman on the motorcycle appeared to be working in coordination with a car, and it looked like a targeted assassination of the American, who held a managerial role in the company.

Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose attacks have cut Nigerian oil exports by a quarter, threatened this week to carry out attacks on oil industry targets and individuals.

However, they have treated American oil workers well during kidnappings, and the Port Harcourt killing did not bear any similarity to previous MEND attacks.

A diplomat said: "It looks like a targeted attack on that individual but my guess is that it was a private matter."

STAFF EVACUATED

The oil industry source said Baker Hughes had decided to pull its staff out of Port Harcourt to Lagos as a security precaution.

Port Harcourt is the largest city in the delta, and several oil multinationals have major offices there, including Royal Dutch Shell and Agip.

"It helps to reinforce the gloomy picture in Nigeria. A lot of sub-contractors are worried about working in Port Harcourt now," the oil industry source said.

Even if the attack is not linked to MEND, it reinforces a trend of rising violent crime in the region, which pumps all of the OPEC member nation's oil.

The violence stems from deep-seated resentment by many inhabitants of the delta, where impoverished villages stand close to multi-billion-dollar oil facilities.

Many residents of the vast wetlands region feel cheated out of the riches being pumped from their tribal lands.

Neglect and rampant corruption have eroded trust in government, while communal rivalries and abuses by the military have fueled the rise of well-armed community militias.

They have taken advantage of the absence of law and order to engage in large-scale theft of crude oil, extortion, blackmail and kidnapping against oil companies, who rely on ill-equipped and poorly trained police and military to protect them.




Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

[keith]

Foreign oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria
Thu May 11, 2006 2:21 PM ET



By Austin Ekeinde

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Three foreign oil workers, including an Italian, were kidnapped from a car under armed escort in Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt on Thursday, a day after a U.S. oil executive was shot dead in the same city.

Police and industry sources said the abduction of the employees of Italian oil contractor Saipem was sparked by a dispute between the company and the community where it is working and that efforts were under way to secure their release.

"There are positive signs the people will be okay. By tomorrow the situation will be straightened out," Rivers State Police Commissioner Samuel Agbetuyi told Reuters by telephone, adding that one suspected kidnapper had been arrested.

The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has waged a campaign of attacks against the oil industry in the world's eighth largest exporter, said it was not involved in the kidnapping.

Industry sources said the three men were traveling in two SUVs with a police escort when they were stopped by gunmen, who disarmed their security.

They were taken from the cars to a nearby boat on one of the multitude of mangrove-lined creeks that runs through the vast wetlands region.

The nationality of the other two was not immediately clear.

SHOOTING

On Wednesday a gunman on a motorcycle shot dead a U.S. citizen working for Texan oil services company Baker Hughes in an apparently planned assassination. Diplomatic and oil industry sources said the killing was probably an isolated incident related to a work dispute.

Kidnapping is a fairly common method used by impoverished villagers in the lawless delta, suffering neglect from their own government, to extract benefits or cash from oil companies.

Port Harcourt is the largest city in the Niger Delta, which pumps all of Nigeria's oil, and several multinationals have major offices there, including Royal Dutch Shell and Agip.

The kidnapping and killing add to a rising trend of violent crime and communal unrest in the vast wetlands region, which coincides with heightened political instability in Nigeria ahead of elections next year.

Militancy in Nigeria's far south is fueled by resentment among many delta inhabitants, who feel cheated out of the riches being pumped from their tribal lands.

Neglect and rampant corruption have eroded trust in government, while communal rivalries and abuses by the military have fueled the rise of well-armed community militias.

They have taken advantage of the absence of law and order to engage in large-scale theft of crude oil, extortion, blackmail and kidnapping against oil companies, which rely on ill-equipped and poorly trained police and military to protect them.

MEND's emergence in December has raised the stakes in the delta, because it introduced a more professional guerrilla tactics, more deadly firepower and a more focused political dimension to the violence.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[keith]

Nigeria pipeline blast kills up to 200 people
By Tom Ashby


Up to 200 people died on Friday when an oil pipeline exploded on the outskirts of Lagos after thieves tapped into it to steal fuel.

The huge blast left about 100 blackened, unrecognizable corpses strewn across a beach where thieves were siphoning fuel into jerry cans for sale on the black market.

The explosion cooked everything within a 20 meter radius.

Only gray skulls and bones, incinerated to near powder, remained of the five people closest to the pipeline, which had been dug out of the sand and bore marks of drilling.

unrecognizable corpses were strewn on the water's edge a few meters away, where the golden sand was still steaming hot on Friday afternoon.

Other bodies, charred and bloated, floated in the waters of the creek, about a mile from Lagos city center by boat.

"You can see the corpses. Some are burned to ash. Others are remnants. ... We estimate 150 to 200 people died," Lagos State Police Commissioner Emmanuel Adebayo said at the scene.

Theft of petrol and crude oil from pipelines is common in Nigeria, an oil producing country where the vast majority of people live in poverty.

"This is caused by hunger and greed. If you've got no job and you're hungry you take advantage of anything to feed your family. Anyone who takes this kind of risk is desperate," said Olanrewaju Saka-Shenayon, a Lagos State government official.

The pipeline, which belongs to state company Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), runs just under the surface of Inagbe Beach, a stretch of golden sand on one of many islands that dot the Atlantic coast around Lagos.

It carries petrol from a large tanker jetty to a distribution depot inland.

Local government workers wearing rubber gloves hauled bodies out of the water and used a makeshift stretcher to carry them up the beach to a shallow grave a short distance away.

About a dozen police and a few Red Cross officials were at the scene.

Inagbe Beach is not a populated area but hundreds of mostly young men apparently came there to tap into the pipeline at the dead of night. The beach is a short distance away from the village of Ilado, where about 50 people died in a similar inferno last year.

A dilapidated port city home to an estimated 13 million people, Lagos has been hit before by devastating explosions. A blast at a munitions dump in 2002 killed more than 1,000 people.

In Jesse, in the southern state of Delta, a pipeline fire also caused by vandals killed about 250 people in 2000.

(Additional reporting by Tume Ahemba and Estelle Shirbon)


Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

[keith]

Eight expat oil workers kidnapped from Nigeria rig
By Estelle Shirbon
Fri Jun 2, 8:36 AM ET



Gunmen abducted eight foreign workers in a night-time raid on an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria on Friday, raising new security fears after a series of militant attacks that cut output from Africa's top oil producer.

Some 20 to 30 attackers fired shots as they boarded the rig from four speed boats but no one was injured, security sources familiar with the situation said.

"Some unknown persons boarded the rig at 3 a.m. (0200 GMT) and took eight workers. They are six from the UK, one Canadian and one from the U.S.," said an executive from one of the companies that operate the Bulford Dolphin rig. He denied reports that eight Nigerians were also abducted in the attack.

Norwegian oilfield services group Fred. Olsen Energy, which owns the rig, said it had made contact with the abducted men. It also said the kidnappers were seeking negotiations, but gave no details on their identity or demands.

It was not clear if militant group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) was involved. MEND's attacks have shut down a quarter of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels per day production of crude oil since February.

The MEND campaign contributed to several spikes in world oil prices. OPEC member Nigeria is the world's eighth-biggest exporter of oil and the fifth largest supplier to the United States, where its sweet, easy-to-refine crude is highly prized.

Bulford Dolphin, leased to Nigerian firm Peak Petroleum which operates it in partnership with Equator Exploration, is an exploration rig 40 miles off the coast that is not expected to produce any crude oil for several years.

Fred. Olsen said 84 crew were on the rig at the time of the attack. All but those abducted were safe, and non-essential staff were being evacuated to the oil city of Port Harcourt.

EMBARRASSMENT

The timing of the attack is embarrassing for Nigerian authorities and particularly the navy, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary with an international fleet review by President Olusegun Obasanjo in Lagos on Friday. Senior U.S. and British naval commanders were taking part in the festivities.

The bulk of Nigeria's oil is pumped onshore or in shallow water in the Niger Delta, a vast wetlands region where poverty, a lucrative trade in stolen crude, a breakdown in law and order, and corruption have fueled militancy and unrest.

As the Niger Delta has become increasingly dangerous, oil companies have moved toward offshore production as deepwater facilities are deemed easier to protect. However, attacks like the one on the Bulford Dolphin rig suggest some local groups are equipped and organized for attacks far from land.

Security sources speculated at first that MEND, which demands greater local control over oil revenues, was behind the kidnappings. But MEND has usually claimed its attacks within minutes and there was no word from the group on Friday.

Another possibility was that the kidnappers were disgruntled members of Niger Delta communities who wanted the oil companies to give them money or fund development projects in their lands, the sources said. Abductions are a common tactic by such groups.

The Bulford Dolphin rig is located in oil exploration block OML 122, which is the subject of an ownership dispute between Peak and oil major Royal Dutch Shell.

A Shell subsidiary said on Thursday it was taking legal action to assert ownership of a 40 percent interest in OML 122 after Peak sought declarations to the effect that Shell's interest had terminated.

(Additional reporting by Richard Solem in Oslo and Tume Ahemba in Lagos)




Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060602/ts_nm/nigeria_attack_dc_6

[keith]

'Five killed' in Nigeria oil raid

Militant attacks have cut Nigeria's oil production by 25%
Five Nigerian soldiers have been killed in a raid on an oil field in which five South Koreans were kidnapped, a group of oil militants says.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it might swap the hostages for a local leader charged with treason.

Mend has staged several attacks in Nigeria's main oil producing region to demand more oil wealth for locals.

Eight oil workers were freed on Sunday, two days after they were seized.


Attacks on oil facilities have become increasingly common in Nigeria's lawless, impoverished Delta region, leading to a 25% cut in oil production by Africa's biggest exporter.

Armed groups have long complained that oil wealth has not been distributed equitably among the local population.

The BBC's Alex Last in Nigeria says there are fears that the violence will only get worse as next year's elections approach.

Hostages 'safe'

Mend said they had sunk an army boat, killing at least five soldiers, after they came under attack as they retreated into the creeks of the Niger Delta.

One militants was also killed, the group said.


There is no independent confirmation of the casualties, but Nigerian military sources say some soldiers have been reported missing.

The South Koreans were safe and would not be harmed unless they were attacked, Mend said.

Mend said the attack was a response to a court decision to deny bail to militant leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

Mr Dokubo-Asari was arrested on treason charges last year. Mend has long demanded his release.

"We are of the opinion that the government of Nigeria may be interested more in a prisoner exchange rather than releasing the persons whose release we have demanded," Mend said.

Three of the kidnapped workers are from South Korean engineering firm Daewoo. The others work for the Korea Gas Corp.

"The Daewoo company is advised to close down its operations with immediate effect as a second attack will bring only death," Mend said.

The latest abduction took place just after midnight in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub, South Korea's foreign ministry said.

The ministry said a Nigerian had also been abducted.

Our correspondent says that many armed groups in the Niger Delta have links to competing local politicians and have been used to help win elections in the past.

So the fear is that violence in the Delta will rise as armed groups, political or otherwise, strive to exert their power, as campaigning starts for elections due next year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5054584.stm

[keith]

Nigerian oil delta seethes as militants are buried By Estelle Shirbon
Sun Sep 3, 4:04 AM ET



Masked rebels from Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta vowed revenge against the government and oil companies during the weekend funerals in remote mangrove forests of nine militants killed by troops.

Near Oporoza, a village of thatched wooden huts accessible only by boat through a maze of creeks, a dozen gunmen in black balaclavas watched from their speedboats while three white coffins were buried in a freshly cleared patch of jungle.

"We will fight! We will not relent! The struggle will continue. We will not allow peace to reign," shouted one of the men, who were all dressed in black and red. They fired their automatic rifles in the air and revved their boat engines in a show of anger.

Asked what he was fighting for, the man listed grievances shared by most residents of the delta: oil pumped from their homeland generates enormous wealth, yet they have no drinking water, no electricity, no clinics, no schools, no jobs.

The government and the oil firms are seen as collaborators who make big money from the delta's oil while neglecting its people. Attacks on the industry, kidnappings of oil workers and theft of crude are all part of the response.

Other factors aggravate the violence. Politicians arm militias to maintain their grip on power and rival gangs fight for control of the lucrative oil smuggling business.

"The money they use for beefing up security, they should use it to develop this area," said the masked rebel as his boat sped off into the creeks, where impoverished villages lie within easy reach of pipelines and oil wells.

The nine militants who were being buried died on August 20 when troops attacked them as they were traveling in boats with a hostage they had just released from his kidnappers -- acting as go-betweens as militants sometimes do in the delta.

The hostage, a Nigerian working for Shell, was also killed.

The security forces expressed regret over the bloodbath, and they allowed the corpses of the nine militants to be displayed publicly at a morgue in the oil city of Warri on Saturday.

From there, youths from their communities loaded the caskets into speedboats and fanned out into the creeks to bury the militants in their respective villages.

Oporoza residents said the masked gunmen at the funeral there were fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose attacks on oil facilities this year have shut down a sixth of Nigeria's production capacity. It was impossible to verify that.

MEND has struck fear into the industry with its sophisticated weaponry and tactics, and it has inspired admiration in many disgruntled youths in the delta.

"MEND is a philosophy that everybody in the Niger Delta understands. It's a call for self-determination and self-defense," said Dennis Otuaro, one of the young men at the burial in Oporoza.

"We will take up arms against the oil companies and the federal government so that until we have development and we are seen as equal citizens they should not take our oil."




Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060903/wl_nm/nigeria_militants_dc_1

[Petronas]

Nigeria (Country threat level - 5): On 19 November 2006, security has been increased at all Nigerian airports after a man attempted to put five cylinders of explosives on a domestic flight at Murtala Muhammed Airport (DNMM/LOS) in Lagos. The aircraft, owned by Bellview Airlines, was on a flight that originated in Lagos and was bound for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (DNAA/ABV) in Abuja, the capital. Nigerian Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode stated that it was unclear whether the man was attempting to blow up the aircraft or smuggling the explosives to Abuja. The investigation into the 22 October 2005 Bellview 737-200 crash that killed 107 passengers has been re-opened due to the possibilityof sabotage. The FAAN will also put 30 new screening machines at airports in Nigeria.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

[Petronas]

Nigerian Muslim cleric detained over al Qaeda case
Thu 8 Feb 2007 11:59:41 GMT

A Muslim cleric has been detained in northeastern Nigeria in connection with a man accused of taking $300,000 from al Qaeda to assist a group called the Nigerian Taliban, officials said on Thursday. The cleric, Mohammed Yusuf, is a well-known preacher in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in the country's Muslim-dominated north. Police fanned out in the area around the mosque where he usually preaches as news of his detention filtered out.

"Yusuf is with us and we are taking him to Abuja for a chat. He's already cooperating," said Ruben Amawo, director of the State Security Services, the secret police, in Borno state. He said Yusuf was a close associate of Muhammed Damagun, a media company director whom prosecutors last month accused of taking money from al Qaeda in 2002 to arrange combat training in Mauritania for 17 members of the Nigerian Taliban.

The case relates to a short-lived spate of attacks in 2003 and 2004 by the self-styled Taliban, a group of reclusive Islamists in the far north of Nigeria with no known connection to the Afghan Taliban. Yusuf, who often includes anti-Western sentiment in his sermons, was known at the time as a sympathiser of the mysterious group.

The Taliban launched a series of armed attacks on police stations and government offices in Borno and neighbouring Yobe, prompting a fierce military crackdown in which at least 20 people were killed and several others captured. ...

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L08242180&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3

[Casey]

Nigerian armed group MEND threatens to resume pipeline attacks
Tuesday, May 08, 2007 - 03:24 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mon May 7, 7:12 PM ET

Nigeria's most high-profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said late Monday it will shortly resume attacks on oil pipelines in the south of the country.

"In pursuance of our pledge to cripple the Nigerian crude oil export industry, we will resume with attacks on pipelines around the entire Niger Delta, in the coming days," MEND said in a statement emailed to the media.

"All attacks will be followed by a statement claiming responsibility as has been our practice," the group continued.

MEND, which industry and security sources describe as the best-equipped, best-organised and most media-savvy militant group in the country, has in the past tended to make good on such threats.

Last Tuesday the group seized six expatriate workers from an offshore oil facility and said it would free them unconditionally once the current administration has handed over power on May 29, provided no attempts were made to secure their release earlier.

Last Thursday it seized a further eight foreign hostages from another offshore vessel, only to release them hours later.

Since it rose to prominence in early 2006, MEND has carried out both kidnappings and a variety of other attacks such as car bombings, directed either at Nigerian government targets or at foreign oil companies and workers.

Rich in oil reserves, the Niger Delta area has been at the centre of a long confrontation between the government, militants who claim to be fighting for a larger share of the country's oil resources for local people and a plethora of armed gangs out to make ransom money.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070507/wl_africa_afp/nigeriaoilunrest;_ylt=As_PO_9I_nz2goYF4D3I.jW96Q8F

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Casey]

Nigeria: Militants Bomb Oil Pipelines

Daily Champion (Lagos)

9 May 2007
Posted to the web 9 May 2007

LESS than one week after militants abducted six foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday claimed responsibility for the bombing of three major oil pipelines in Brass, Bayelsa State.

Confirming the attacks, the affected oil firm, Eni in a message posted on its website said "Eni confirms that Ogoda-brass and Tebidada-Brass pipelines have been sabotaged."

MEND in an e-mail did not give reasons for the attack on the oil facilities.

"Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked and destroyed three major pipelines We will continue indefinitely with attacks on all pipelines, platforms and support vessels," the militant group in an e-mail posted to some foreign media merely stated.

Later MEND'S spokesman, Jomo Gbomo in a statement made available to Daily Champion in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State said that the militant group was behind the attack, noting that two of these pipelines are within the territory of Akassa and Brass, just as there was an immediate power outage at the Agip Brass terminal after the destruction of the pipelines

His words, "loss in pressure in that pipeline which possibly could have been feeding the power generating plants as well may have triggered a cut-off device which as a safety measure cut off power and shut down other facilities in the terminal,"

The coordinator of anti-piracy squad, Bayelsa Volunteers, Chief Joshua Benemesia also confirmed the attacks in Brass and Akassa.

He, however, did not have information on the capacity of the pipelines attacked.

Also, a private security contactor who did not want his name in print confirmed that a large oil slick was spreading down the river from the Brass area.

MEND had in December of 2005 bombed oil facilities which knocked out nearly a quarter of production in Nigeria. The militant group also recently claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of six foreign oil workers from a Chevron-operated facility.

MEND said they were fighting for a greater share of the tens of billions of dollars of oil revenues generated by their impoverished region, and the freedom of two leaders on trial for treason and corruption charges.

Militant attacks in Nigeria, which produces the highly desirable light sweet crude oil that is easy to refine, often rattle oil markets already jittery over instability in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Italian Eni, the parent of Nigeria Agip companies has shelved further production from Akri and Oshi fields, Delta State, for security reasons.

The company said activities to restore the pipelines were already under way, indicating that the production outage would be temporary.

It was unclear how much oil was short in. Attacks on Agip's Okono/Okpoho fields in the shallow water Niger Delta last Thursday had led to a production loss of 42,000 barrels per day.

A surge in militant activities in the last week has raised Nigeria's production cuts from previous 600,000 bpd to nearly 800,000 bpd with the latest incident.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200705090170.html

[Casey]

Gunmen seize US oil workers in Nigeria

Gunmen seized four foreign oil workers, including at least three Americans, in Nigeria adding to a list of dozens of foreigners abducted in recent weeks, officials said.

The four men were on a vessel off the oil-rich southern coast which was attacked late Tuesday by gunmen on six small boats, an industry source said. Nigerian military personnel fought the attackers but could not stop the abductions.

The attack came shortly after three oil pipelines were blown up in the Niger Delta.

A US diplomat said three Americans were definitely among those seized and the nationality of the fourth was being checked with a possibility he may be Canadian.

Femi Odumabo, a spokesman for Chevron, the oil US company for whom the attacked vessel was subcontracted, told AFP the four seized men were all US nationals.

A military spokesman said four Americans were taken hostage at a location known as Okam in Olero in southern Delta State.

"Some navy ratings were wounded during a gun duel with the attackers," the spokesman, a major, who asked not to be named, told AFP by telephone from his base in the port city of Warri.

He said security agents were intensifying efforts to track down the militants.

"We are yet to identify the group responsible for this attack. But I can assure you that everything is being done to track them down," he added.

The seized men work for Global Industries. The company's vessel was some 10 kilometres (six miles) off the Nigerian coast at the time of the attack.

"It happened around 11:00 pm last night when the vessel was about 10 kilometres off Escravos," one industry source said.

Sources described the attack as fairly well organized. They said the well armed attackers arrived in six small boats with about six men to each boat.

An industry source said Nigerian military personnel guarding the vessel had tried to stand their ground against the assailants.

There were only minor injuries in the clash, he said.

The Joint Task Force, the military unit in charge of policing the Niger Delta oil region, confirmed there were no casualties amongst its men.

Noone has claimed responsibility for the new attack. But more than 30 foreigners have now been kidnapped in the Niger Delta since the start of this month alone.

There was a lull in kidnappings during the Nigerian elections in April but the armed groups have made up for lost time since.

"Looks like they're on a roll," one oil and gas industry analyst told AFP.

The attack on the Global Industries vessel follows the sabotage of three pipelines early Tuesday by southern Nigeria's most high-profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has vowed to keep up its attacks on oil targets.

The Niger Delta area is at the centre of a long confrontation between the government, militants who claim to be fighting for a larger share of the country's oil resources for local people, and a plethora of armed gangs out to make ransom money.

More than 150 foreign workers have been kidnapped there since the start of 2006, most of them connected to the oil industry.

The vast majority have been released unharmed. One or two however have been injured or killed by the Nigerian military in rescue attempts.



http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=070509093325.3tv1lwf1.php

[keith]

Weapons of War in the Niger Delta

By Bestman Wellington

The Niger Delta region of Nigeria, home to large oil and gas operations, is awash with dangerous Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). The explosion in activities of non-state armed groups poses a serious threat to residents, the security of the Nigerian state and the booming petro-business in the region. Prominent among the armed groups operating in the oil- and gas-rich, but poverty stricken and under-developed enclave, are the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), the Bush Boys and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Some of these groups are political militant groups, demanding an equitable distribution of oil resources, justice and development of the Niger Delta region, while others are gangs and criminal syndicate groups, also called cults or confraternities in Nigeria. All of them tap into the vibrant gun and gang culture in the delta.

Weapons Flood the Delta

From various police and military raids of the groups' armories and hideouts, or the government initiated disarmament or cash-for-arms programs, weapons have been uncovered in droves. The weapons vary from AK-47s, Czech SAs, light machine guns, Czech Model 26s, Sten MK 2s, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), MAT-49s, MG 36s, Berettas, HK G3s, FN-FALs, home-made guns, pump-action shot guns, G3s, among others [1]. The sophisticated European-made assault rifles and explosives are in the hands of the militant groups like MEND and the Martyrs Brigade. The groups also possess a few M-16s, which are made in the United States. Russia, Germany, Belgium, Serbia, Czechoslovakia, the United States and China are all sources for Nigerian arms (Niger Delta Standard, March 5, 2006).

These weapons—so called SALWs—are brought into the delta from various locations. Most of the assault rifles—such as the Russian AK-47, the German G3, the Belgian FN-FAL, the Czech machine-guns and the Serbian RPGs—are supplied by illegal dealers and sellers. Some of the illegal gun dealers are Nigerians. In October 2006, for example, the Rivers State police command arrested Chris Ndudi Njoku, a 45 year-old businessman who specialized in importing prohibited firearms into Nigeria. In his possession were hundreds of G3s, AK-47s and Beretta automatic rifles [2]. There are also European dealers involved in the trade, but, unlike their Nigerian counterparts, they almost always escape the arm of the law, in some cases due to their connections with powerful figures in various governments (This Day, February 18, 2003).

Nigeria has porous borders on both its land and sea edges, allowing gun smuggling from a variety of African countries. Many of the weapons also come from war-torn countries in Africa. Additionally, poorly paid Nigerian soldiers who have served in peacekeeping missions in other African countries, such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, often return home and sell their weapons to combatants or gun dealers [3]. According to one arms researcher, Babafemi Ojudu, many of the arms smuggling rings operate out of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria (IRIN, May 2006). The smugglers use speed boats to connect with ships on the high seas, and then ferry the arms back to shore. Jailed militant leader Alhaji Dokubo-Asari confirmed this method to reporters in 2005, stating, "We are very close to international waters, and it's very easy to get weapons from ships" (IRIN, May 2006).

Some of the weapons in the armed groups' stockpiles are acquired after attacks on police and military outposts. During such attacks, the militant groups break into the police or military armories and cart away arms. There are many cases in which armed groups conduct well-coordinated attacks and kill Nigerian security officials, carting away their weapons. On July 12, 2006, for example, MEND combatants killed four naval personnel and injured three soldiers who were escorting a Chevron oil tanker along Chonomi creeks in the Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State and in turn confiscated their weapons (The Punch, July 13, 2006). Just this year, in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, on the eve of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections on April 14, armed militants attacked the Mini-Okoro Elelenwo police stations and carted away recently-arrived AK-47s, killing many police officers during the attack (The Midweek Telegraph, April 18-24). Corrupt security officials also sell weapons to militants. Before the April elections, for example, politicians in Niger State imported massive amounts of arms for their "security detachments" (which also likely went to thugs hired to help rig the elections) (Vanguard, April 13).

Additionally, armed groups thrive on the local oil boom. They carry out oil bunkering (theft) operations, often exchanging bunkered oil for weapons or selling oil and then purchasing guns. Oil money is a significant force behind the proliferation of weapons in the region. Major bunkering groups also supply gangs with weapons and have them act as armed guards while they travel along the waterways and bunkering routes looking for pipelines from which to pilfer oil. Politicians also hire gangs and criminal groups to have them provide security and, during election season, to help intimidate voters to vote a certain way. Many of the politicians purchase their weapons from illegal dealers, helping to fuel the trade.

Apart from the above weapons sources, there are local underground arms manufacturing industries in Awka, the capital of Anambra State in eastern Nigeria. There, local blacksmiths produce weapons popularly called, "Awka made." The Awka guns cannot be classified as automatic weapons because the quality of the weapons is so poor. Nevertheless, the gun can inflict serious injury or even death on its target at close range.

Attacks in the Delta

The armed groups of the Niger Delta have carried out deadly and paralyzing attacks on oil and gas facilities with their weapons. They have shut down oil production and massacred scores of security officials guarding the facilities and infrastructure. The groups are fighting in familiar terrain which, despite the fact that the security forces are armed, gives the armed groups the upper-hand. They have also taken foreign oil workers hostage—sometimes releasing them only after huge ransoms are paid. The groups often use the ransom money to support their insurrectionary campaigns. These latter activities are always associated with the political-militant groups like the NDPVF, MEND and the Martyrs Brigade.

The armed groups in the delta often conduct their attacks using outboard-engine motorized fiber boats. Some of the speed boats are imported, while some are locally crafted. Most locally-manufactured speed boats are smaller compared to the foreign-made, yet the former can also travel the rough seas. Despite the employment of sophisticated gunboats by the Nigerian military taskforce, insurrectionary campaigns by the militant groups are almost always successful. The success of the militant operations hinges on two factors: the ingenuity of the militant boat drivers who are familiar with the terrain of the creeks' complex web of streams, and the popular support among the people of the region that the many years of neglect and under-development of the Niger Delta area have fostered.

To reduce the number of weapons in the Niger Delta, there is a need to prevent the flow of weapons from other countries into illegal hands in Nigeria. The local police bureaus must also live up to their responsibility of curtailing the inflow of these illicit guns into the delta. The government should run a credible and transparent security system that, by providing residents with their basic security needs, will discourage them from forming or joining cults or militant formations that are proliferating dangerous SALWs throughout Nigeria

Notes

1. Nicholas Florquin and Eric G. Berman, "Armed and Armless; Security in the ECOWAS Region," Small Arms Survey, Geneva, 2005. The above weapons are not exhaustive of the guns in the hands of the various groups.
2. "Soldiers, Police Seize High Caliber Rifles in Rivers," Human Rights News, Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), Ogale-Nchia, Eleme, Rivers State, Nigeria, October, 2006.
3. Nicholas Florquin and Eric Berman, "Armed and Armless."

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373428

Additionally, here are two links that discuss the various insurgent groups and criminal gangs, same source:

Guide to the Armed Groups Operating in the Niger Delta – Part 1
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?issue_id=4070

Guide to the Armed Groups Operating in the Niger Delta – Part 2
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373350

[keith]

Nigeria's Cults and their Role in the Niger Delta Insurgency

By Bestman Wellington

In Nigeria's delta region, various militant groups continue to attack multinational energy interests by blowing up infrastructure, siphoning oil and gas from pipelines and kidnapping expatriate energy staff. Additionally, these groups often attack Nigerian security services. The origin of the militant groups in the delta today can partially be explained by the evolution of Nigeria's cult groups, more generally known as confraternities. Nigerian confraternities were largely the precursor to many of the militant groups in the delta. While confraternities began in the country's universities, these gangs eventually spread to the streets and creeks of the energy-rich delta region.

Most reports claim that the first manifestation of a campus confraternity (or campus cult) was in 1952. At that time, Wole Soyinka, Olumyiwa Awe, Raph Okpara, Aig-Imokhuede, Ben Egbuchie, Nathaniel Oyelola and Pius Oleghe (who were known as the "Magnificent Seven") formed the Pyrates Confraternity at the University of Ibadan. The purpose of the confraternity was to combat societal ills and conformist degradation, which were being exhibited not only by students, but by society at large. According to the Pyrates, the first graduates of the University of Ibadan were elitist, as they were highly privileged since they were the first graduating class of Nigeria's first university [1]. Most of the university students adopted elitist behavior, imitating the dress of the colonialists and mimicking their culture. Wole Soyinka, who was code-named "Captain Blood," together with his colleagues felt that the pretenses should be stopped. A notable incident that further provoked the Pyrates occurred after many privileged students organized a demonstration against the construction of a rail-line that was to be built across a road leading to their campus. The students were afraid that improved transportation access to the university would reduce its exclusivity. The Pyrates decided to fight what they believed to be elitist nonsense. They succeeded not only in ridiculing the students' argument, but also accomplished the construction of the rail-line [2].

Membership in the Pyrates Confraternity was offered to intellectually promising men with no discrimination as to race, color or tribe. The majority of those who applied to join the Pyrates were not accepted. The activity of members was rigidly controlled and the group promoted non-violent dispute resolution. From 1953 to 1972, the Pyrates was the only confraternity on Nigerian campuses [3].

The Emergence of Pseudo-Confraternities

In the early 1970s, several confraternities emerged. In 1972, a member of the Pyrates Confraternity, Dr. Bolaji Carew (code-named "Late Ahoy Rica Ricardo"), and other members were accused of not following the teachings of the confraternity and were unexpectedly expelled. As a result of this incident and other problems, the Pyrates pulled out of Nigeria's universities. They then registered themselves in Nigeria under the name of the National Association of Seadogs (NAS). Carew later founded the Buccaneers Confraternity (also called the National Associations of Sea Lords). In the formation of the new confraternity, Carew took with him many elements of the Pyrates, including similar attire and symbols of the cult as well as its highly regimented and hierarchical structure (The Midweek Telegraph, August 10-16, 2005). The origin of confraternity violence dates back to Carew's 1972 saga and the birth of the Buccaneers (The Midweek Telegraph, August 10-16, 2005).

After the Buccaneers, the Neo-Black Movement of Africa, also called Black Axe, was founded at the University of Benin in Edo state. After its creation, another confraternity, called the Supreme Eiye Confraternity, also known as the National Association of Air Lords, broke away from Black Axe. During this time, the splintered cult groups introduced a new dimension into confraternity tradition: before carrying out any activities, they would practice voodoo rituals.

Several notorious cult groups also came into being under the military rule of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. In 1983, the Eternal Fraternal Order of the Legion Consortium, also called the Klansmen Konfraternity (KK), was started by five students at the University of Calabar in Cross River state. In 1984, the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (SVC), also called the Adventurers or the De Norsemen Club of Nigeria, was founded by a former member of the Buccaneers [4].

Nigeria's Confraternities Spread to the Streets and Creeks

During the early 1990s, Nigeria experienced an explosion of confraternity activities in Nigerian schools, colleges, streets and creeks in the energy-rich delta region. The extreme hooliganism, violence and bloody struggle for supremacy among rival confraternities peaked around this time. The Family Confraternity, also known as the Campus Mafia or the Mafia, came into existence during this period. Today, they maintain a presence in numerous schools throughout Nigeria. Maintaining a low profile, they operate as an imitation of the Italian mafia. Shortly after their dramatic appearance, several students were expelled from Abia State University for cheating on exams and for cultism. This started a shift in the activities of the confraternity group from the university community to the streets and environs of the state.

Another notorious campus confraternity was formed at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUST) named the Brotherhood of the Blood, or Two-Two (Black Beret). Countless other groups appeared, including the following: Second Son of Satan (SSS), Night Cadet, Sonmen, Mgba Mgba Brothers, Temple of Eden, Trojan Horse, Jurists, White Bishops, Gentlemen Clubs, Fame, Executioners, Dreaded Friend of Friends, Eagle Club, Black Scorpion, Red Sea Horse, Fraternity of Friends and Victor Charlie Boys—the last of which was formed by Professor Augustine Ahiazu during his tenure as vice-chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology [5].

During the same era, campus-based confraternities such as the SVC and the KK extended their influence by creating street and creek wings. For example, the KK established a street/creek arm called Deebam in order to fight for supremacy and territory through organized violence, banditry and criminality. In response, the SVC created Deewell; however, when Deewell was ineffective and could not match violence for violence with its rival Deebam, the Icelanders (German) was additionally formed. Well-known cult and militia leader Ateke Tom would later become the leader of the Icelanders (German). The Outlaws, another brutal street and creek confraternity, broke away from Icelanders (German). Other groups, such as the Big Five and the Mbacho, still exist in Rivers state.

There are even female confraternities in Nigeria. During the late 1990s, female confraternities such as the Black Brazier (also known as Bra Bra), the Viqueens, Daughters of Jezebel, and the Damsel, among others, acted as spies for the male confraternities and operated as prostitution syndicates.

Confraternities and their Role in Delta Violence

When discussing confraternities in Nigeria, the gangs referred to exist either in universities, colleges and polytechnics or in the streets and creeks. Almost all of the violent confraternities originated, splintered or derived inspiration from the various university confraternities, as evidenced by similar initiation rites, slogans, symbols and gang-type behavior.

The outpouring of cult activities in the 1980s and 1990s heightened tensions within campuses and led to fierce struggles for supremacy among the groups. Those that were normally peaceful became engaged in acts of violence in order to survive. New members were lured into the confraternity by various spurious means and empty promises. Recruits were enticed by the prospect of having access to money and increased employment opportunities. Confraternities claimed that they could grant new members the powers to defend themselves and loved ones, improve their reputation and social standing and facilitate contact with influential people and those of the opposite sex. These promises were often never realized, but disengaging oneself from the confraternity group after being initiated was extremely difficult—when it did occur, defectors were often killed so that they could not reveal cult secrets.

When a new recruit joins a cult group, he is inculcated with respect for spiritual fortification and trained in common tactics of physical combat, such as hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. Violent cult groups acquire their weapons from several sources, including wealthy patrons and politicians and chiefs who hire them for specific purposes. Other sources include friendly governments at the state and local levels, captured weapons from rival groups, attacks on security forces and exchanging stolen oil for arms [6].

In order to sustain their activities, confraternities frequently swing their loyalty and actions in the direction of sources of money. Most of the confraternities have been blamed for taking hostage foreign oil workers and collecting ransom in the Niger Delta. Numerous militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) employ confraternity members as combatants. For example, the head of the cult group The Outlaws, Soboma George, doubles as a MEND commander (The Midweek Telegraph, February 7-13).

Conclusion

Today, the majority of cult groups in the delta are involved in organized crime, ranging from armed robbery to hostage taking. Some of the groups have aligned themselves with the well-known militant groups of the delta, such as MEND, and have undertaken attacks in their name. The history of confraternities in Nigeria demonstrates that the current unrest affecting the Niger Delta region has its roots in Nigeria's recent history, as the fighters attacking multinational energy interests are primarily youths with a history of cultism. The existence of these campus and street/creek gangs constitutes a serious threat to Nigerian society.

Notes

1. Allwell Ndubuaku, "Secret cults in Nigerian University; Amazing facts and Revelations," Owerri, Imo state, 2001.
2. Ibid.
3. Author interview with a capon (leader) of the Pyrates Confraternity, Abuja, Nigeria, August 2001.
4. Author interview with a senior officer of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity (SVC), Port
Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria, 1999.
5. "Citadel of Violence" (1999), a publication of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR), Lagos, Nigeria.
6. According to an unpublished research report conducted by the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), Ogale-Nchia, Eleme, Rivers state, Nigeria, April 2006.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373530

[Petronas]

NIGERIA: TWO CHRISTIANS MURDERED IN KADUNA
Monday October 22, 2007

One man has been killed with a sword and another bludgeoned to death in this city in central northern Nigeria following Muslim leaders’ appeal to wage violent jihad against youthful Christians.

Muslim extremists on October 12 murdered Henry Emmanuel Ogbaje, a 24-year-old Christian, at an area known as Gamji Gate. The following day, church leaders said, a young Christian identified only as Basil was beaten to death with wooden clubs in the same area.

Ogbaje was a Sunday school teacher with the Military Protestant Church at Kotoko Barracks in Kaduna, while Basil, church leaders said, was a member of the Our Lady of Apostles Catholic Church. He was from Kagarko Local Government Area.

Elder Saidu Dogo, secretary of the northern Nigeria chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass that Islamic leader Sheik Gumi had urged Muslims to wage jihad against Christians during Tafsir, the reading and interpretation of the Quran, in televised broadcasts during the Islamic month-long observance of Ramadan.

“I saw Sheik Gumi on the television, NTA [Nigeria Television Authority], during that period preaching this inciting sermon – in fact, the same sermon was again broadcast by NTA Kaduna, on September 21 and 22,” Dogo told Compass. “He specifically called for a jihad, and that when they go killing they should not kill the elderly people, because the elderly have spent their years already, but that Muslims should kill young Christians.”

Dogo said that Sheik Gumi justified his call for jihad by saying in the same way Muhammad captured the Arabian peninsula, and Usman dan Fodio influenced northern Nigeria. Sheik Gumi concluded that because the British took northern Nigeria from the Islamic reformer (1754-1817) by force, Muslims “should fight to take over Nigeria by going to war against Christians.”

“With these kinds of statements coming from Muslim leaders, why would the followers of Islam not attack Christians?” Dogo asked. “We believe that the killing of Henry Ogbaje and Basil are the result of such sermons of these Muslim leaders.”

Dogo expressed dismay that the NTA, an agency of the Nigerian government, could be used to air such inflammatory messages. Nor is the Nigerian government making any efforts, he said, to curb such manipulation of the media. ...

http://compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5090&backpage=summaries&critere=&countryname=&rowcur=

[keith]

Nigeria and the Threat of al-Qaeda Terrorism

By Bestman Wellington

Not long ago, Mike Mbama Okiro, Nigeria’s inspector general of police, raised an alarm over threats by al-Qaeda to launch an attack using time-bombs on Nigerian soil. Okiro’s warning generated much attention in local and international media. Islamic groups in Nigeria, including the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN), held several press conferences debunking such claims, and labeled Okiro a “liar.” The police chief did not give more details about his allegation, but said his warning was based on intelligence reports. An SCSN spokesman said: “The police know where the terrorists are and Muslims should not be referred to as terrorists. The militants are terrorists for kidnapping and killing people and the police should go there and stop tagging Muslims as terrorists” (Nigerian Tribune, May 21).

Later a Nigerian newspaper quoted a police high command statement asking Nigerians to disregard recent media reports on the purported threats from al-Qaeda: “For the avoidance of doubt, the Inspector General of Police’s only public pronouncement on terrorism was on 10th March, 2008 during the inauguration of the anti-terrorism squad when he said, 'The creation of the new outfit is borne out of our mission to safeguard our environment against terrorism, even though the nation has not experienced terrorist attack; we don’t have to wait until it happens before we start to prepare.’ ” (This Day [Lagos], May 20). Despite the apparent reversal on the threat assessment, special Nigerian anti-terrorist squads were deployed to Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt (Panapress, May 14).

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation with over 140 million people, roughly split equally between Christians and Muslims. The two groups usually live side by side peacefully, but there are occasional outbreaks of sectarian conflict. Tension heightened in 2000 after 12 mainly Islamic northern states began a stricter enforcement of Shari’a (Islamic law), alienating sizeable Christian minorities. Thousands were killed in sporadic riots across the country. Last September the U.S. embassy in Nigeria said the country was at risk of “terrorist attack,” and in 2003 Osama bin Laden named the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter as ripe for jihad or Islamic holy war (Reuters, May 10).

A number of suspected jihadis have been arrested by police and the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) in recent years, but the cases have dragged on in the courts and there have been no convictions. No conclusive evidence of al-Qaeda’s presence in Nigeria has been made public. Five Islamist militants with suspected links to al-Qaeda are on trial in the capital, Abuja, for plotting attacks on the government (VOA, December 9, 2007). The men were arrested in November 2007 by the SSS in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria. Three of them have also been charged with training in Algeria with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) between 2005 and August 2007. The GSPC renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in January 2007.

The northern part of Nigeria has witnessed some Islamist violence in the past. There are several armed Islamist groups throughout the northern region, but whether they are linked to bin Laden’s al-Qaeda is not clear. These groups include the Hisbah, the Zamfara State Vigilante Service (ZSVS), Al-Sunna Wal Jamma (“Followers of the Prophet,” also known as “the Nigerian Taliban”) and others. To understand Nigeria’s militant Islamist movement it is necessary to briefly look at the origins of some of the groups, their composition, leadership, areas of operation and sources of financing/support:

• The Hisbah are an Islamic vigilante group that support adherence to Shari’a, which several states in northern Nigeria have adopted in recent years (the civil code, covering wills, marriage, and so forth, has been in force across the Nigerian federation since 1979). These groups do not usually carry firearms, but are more likely to carry sticks and whips as well as knives and curved weapons with a blade know as a “barandami” [1].

The Hisbah groups are sponsored by state governments in the north that practice Shari’a, and draw their membership from the army of unemployed in those states. They were considered instrumental in influencing the outcome of the 2003 elections

• Another Islamist group which operates in the northern part of Nigeria is the Zamfara State Vigilante Service (ZSVS). The ZSVS wear red uniforms and have been described as a “ragtag volunteer army” that patrols Zamfara state arresting anyone suspected of violating Islamic law. The group reportedly carries pistols along with homemade machetes and whips. The governor of Zamfara state has been the driving force directing the ZSVS and organizing its funding [2].

• Al-Sunna Wal Jamma was formed sometime around 2002. Its objective is the establishment of Nigeria as an Islamic state; its adherents are predominantly Maiduguri university students from the northeastern part of Nigeria. Some 200 members apparently took up arms for the first time in December 2003, possibly in response to the attempt by the governor of Yobe to disband the group.

So fervent is its adherence to a fundamentalist notion of Islam that locals have dubbed it “the Taliban” in recognition of the group’s admiration for the former Afghanistan government, toppled by Coalition forces in 2001. Indeed, Al-Sunna Wal Jamma once replaced the Nigerian flag with the Afghan flag on a state building briefly occupied during an altercation with police.

The porosity of the Nigerian border, economic hardship and religious tensions combine to make these Islamic groups vulnerable to recruitment into dangerous terrorist networks, threatening the security of the country. The alarm raised by Police Chief Mike Okiro regarding threats to the Nigerian nation by al-Qaeda extremists might not be backed by intelligence reports, but in Nigeria, particularly in the Muslim north, there are various armed Islamist formations with agendas similar to that of Osama bin Laden.

Notes

1. See Nicolas Florquin and Eric G. Berman (ed.s), Armed and Aimless; Armed Groups, Guns, and Human Security in the ECOWAS region, Geneva, 2005.
2. Ibid.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2374232

[makeshiftpatriot]

Militants in the Nigerian Delta are known for action. This will be something to watch over the course of the weekend and going into oil trading on Monday. Here is an article from Reuters on a warning that was issued to all oil companies operating in the Delta.

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Nigerian militants tell oil workers to leave delta

By Randy Fabi
Sat Sep 13, 2:03 PM ET

Nigerian militants on Saturday warned oil firms in the Niger Delta to withdraw their workers in the next 24 hours or face a "hurricane" of retaliation after a major gun battle with security forces.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut more than a fifth of the OPEC member's oil output, threatened to target oil workers after it said seven people were killed in fighting between security forces and militants in Tombia, in Rivers state.

"Oil companies are warned to move out their workers within the next 24 hours because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region," MEND, the country's most prominent militant group, said in an emailed statement.

Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Eni and Chevron are among the numerous oil companies that operate in the restive Niger Delta, the main source of Nigeria's 2 million barrels per day output.

A Shell spokesman in Nigeria said the company did not comment on security matters.

HELICOPTERS, GUN BOATS

MEND said security forces had used helicopters, jet fighters and over 20 gunboats in Saturday's fighting.

"This may be the beginning of a full scale oil war," the group said.

A security source said soldiers from the army, navy and air force were involved in the clashes.

Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state, played down the fighting and said the clashes had begun after militants attacked a military patrol boat.

He said there were no casualties, adding: "The situation is under control. There is no cause for alarm."

Security in the Niger Delta worsened dramatically in early 2006 when militants, who say they are fighting for more local control of the impoverished region's oil wealth, started blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign workers.

MEND said 27 oil workers, kidnapped earlier this week, were caught in the middle of the fighting in Tombia.

Gunmen in the Delta hijacked an oil supply vessel on Tuesday with two Britons, two South Africans, a Ukrainian and several Nigerians on board.

MEND said it rescued the hostages from their captors on Friday and took them to a camp that came under fire on Saturday.

It was not immediately possible to independently verify MEND's claims.

President Umaru Yar'Adua took office 16 months ago promising to bring stability to the Delta, but has seen little success and has looked overseas for help.

Yar'Adua on Wednesday announced the creation of a new ministry to address the problems of the Delta, but militants dismissed it as no more likely to succeed than past efforts.