February 05, 2007

Nigeria militants claim to free leader

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - The main militant group in Nigeria's restive, oil-rich south said dozens of its heavily armed forces raided a prison Sunday and freed one of their leaders.

By DAN UDOH, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 28, 6:10 PM ET

Officials in the oil-industry center of Port Harcourt confirmed there was a prison break, but did not say who escaped. Officials said one passer-by died when the militants exploded dynamite to break through the prison walls.

Several other civilians were injured, but no security forces were hurt, said Felix Ugbaudu, police commissioner of Rivers state where the attack occurred.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said about 50 of its fighters freed the group leader and spirited him back into the vast region of swamps and creeks where most of the crude in Africa's biggest oil producer is pumped. The military sent armored personnel carriers and gunships against the militants, the movement said.

The group said in a statement that its fighters carried machine guns, grenades and assault rifles during the hour-long gunbattle, but that none of the militants were hurt.

Criminals and militants seeking greater control of oil funds for their impoverished region have stepped up their attacks on Nigeria's oil industry in recent months, blowing up pipelines and kidnapping workers.

Attacks in the past year have cut nearly one quarter of Nigeria's daily 2.5 million barrel per day crude output, helping raise oil prices in international markets.

Separately, a Belgian man was reported killed in another city in the region and his driver and a female acquaintance were in custody, police said Sunday.

The man was killed in a fish market Saturday near the city of Warri in southern Nigeria, Delta state police Commissioner Udom Ekpoudom said.

Ekpoudom said police were investigating, but that the motive for the killing didn't appear to be related to a surge of violence targeting foreign oil workers in the region. He had no further details.

More than 80 workers were kidnapped last year and dozens more have been seized this month, with more than three dozen foreign workers currently in captivity. Hostages are rarely harmed by their captors, but there have been casualties in gunfights when Nigerian security forces confront the kidnappers.

Despite the region's great oil stores, most of the region's people are mired in deep poverty that they blame on corrupt government officials and unfair contracts with the international oil companies that pump most of the crude.

Posted by Publisher at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

Oil workers targeted as Nigeria violence grows

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Lolo Oluchi has painted over the bullet holes in the ceiling of her karaoke bar in this Nigerian oil city, where gunmen seized seven foreign oil workers last August, but the regulars haven't come back.

By Tom Ashby
Mon Feb 5, 4:22 AM ET

Thousands of foreign workers and their families have left Africa's top oil producer since a faceless new militant group launched unprecedented attacks about a year ago on the places where they work, live and relax.

Those still left in the industry yards of Port Harcourt and on oilfields in the remote creeks of the surrounding Niger Delta are braving a surge in violence under a security clampdown.

"People are scared of coming out. Before, you couldn't move in here on a good night. Now we get five or six customers. Sometimes one or two. Sometimes none," said Oluchi, pointing to the empty seats in her Goodfellas club.

The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has bombed oil export terminals, blown up pipelines, planted car bombs in oil company compounds and abducted foreign workers since it appeared in late 2005. Output from Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil exporter, is down by a fifth.

The MEND has also triggered dozens of copy-cat kidnappings, armed robberies and oilfield invasions, mostly by militias seeking ransoms or benefits for their villages from oil firms.

Now there is a new abduction almost every week. There are 29 foreigners being held in remote camps in the delta, including three with the MEND.

ELECTIONS

Bar-owner Oluchi, like others who benefit from Africa's largest oil industry, sees the surge in kidnappings as partly linked to general elections in Nigeria in April and hopes things will settle down after that.

Local politicians normally arm thugs before elections to stake their claims to electoral wards, and these gangs often engage in "freelancing" of their own.

But MEND says it is not interested in politics -- it is preparing for all-out guerrilla war with Africa's largest army.

"The risks are to the downside," said Kevin Rosser of Control Risks, a security company working with several oil companies in Nigeria.

MEND argues that the people of the delta, most of whom live in poverty without access to clean water, schools, power and roads, have been cheated out of their oil wealth by the central government in league with Western multinationals.

They want to drive away the foreign workers who keep the oil flowing, halt exports and force the federal government in Abuja to renegotiate the terms of Nigeria's century-old union.

"Companies are definitely reassessing their whole posture toward Nigeria. There is real worry about the situation deteriorating and no obvious factors acting as a brake. The underlying issues are intractable," Rosser said, adding that companies were delaying investments because of uncertainty.

What happens after elections in April will be critical, analysts say.

"I think we are coming to a turning point," said Miabiye Kuromiema, director of non-government group Our Niger Delta.

"There is a chance we will survive elections without a major crisis and the next president will engage more fundamentally on the issues of the Niger Delta. If not, there will likely be a bigger challenge to oil production."

WAR

All the major political parties in Nigeria are fielding candidates from the predominantly Muslim north after eight years of rule by President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian southerner.

The expected power shift rouses sectarian sensibilities in the south, where minority ethnic groups such as the delta's Ijaw see a history of domination by the northern ruling elite.

The spokesman for MEND, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo, said he expected the next government to get frustrated by fruitless talks and eventually declare a state of emergency.

"A state of emergency will be declared in the Niger Delta when the north believes they are well prepared for a final assault on militants in the delta," he said in an email.

The MEND foresees a long guerrilla war, a mass exodus from the delta, the killing of expatriate workers and a total halt in oil production.

Under this scenario, international pressure would force Nigeria to accept United Nations peacekeepers and make major concessions to the delta, he added.

Obasanjo has shied away from using full force against the militants to avoid turning the delta, which accounts for 90 percent of Nigeria's dollar revenues, into a battleground.

But Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is now running for president on an opposition party ticket, has accused his estranged boss of stockpiling arms for a major military assault.

Oil executives are reluctant to paint such a gloomy picture, but foreign workers in Port Harcourt have an action plan already worked out. "If there is trouble we pack our bags and move to safe accommodation," said a British contractor, asking not to be named. "If it gets too bad, we will just arm up, get to the airport and get the hell out."

Posted by Publisher at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

Nigeria confirms the release of nine Chinese workers by Joel Olatunde Agoi

LAGOS (AFP) - Nine Chinese oil workers kidnapped last month in the restive southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa, have been freed, a senior government official has told AFP.

Sun Feb 4, 5:39 AM ET

"The men were released unhurt early this morning to the government and they have been handed over to their company," Bayelsa government secretary Godknows Boladei Igali said Sunday.

The Chinese foreign ministry had earlier announced their release.

"After 11 days of complex efforts, the nine Chinese employees who had been kidnapped were freed safe and well at 6:30 am Beijing time," (2230 GMT Saturday)," said a statement posted on the ministry's website.

"We thank the Nigerian government and other concerned parties who lent their aid," it added.

Igali, who headed the Bayelsa government team that negotiated the release of the hostages, neither gave details of the deal nor the group responsible for the abduction.

He did not also say if ransoms were paid to secure the freedom of the Chinese who were seized from the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) on January 25 and taken to an unkown location.

The unidentified gunmen also raided the office and staff living quarters of the men and took an unspecified amount of cash, police and industry officials there said.

It was the second time in January that Chinese working in Africa's biggest oil-producing country had been seized.

Five Chinese telecoms workers were kidnapped on January 5. They were freed on January 17 and have since returned home.

Beijing has been aggressively courting African countries such as Nigeria, which is the continent's biggest oil producer, in an effort to deepen economic ties, and President Hu Jintao is currently in the middle of an eight-nation African tour.

Many of the abductions of foreign workers are blamed on groups campaigning for a larger share in oil revenues.

Last year separatists in the oil-rich Niger Delta region kidnapped more than 60 foreigners, mostly in the oil sector, as well as killing 37 Nigerian soldiers and dozens of local oil workers.

Two Italians and one Lebanese have been held since December 7 by the region's most high profile separatist group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

Twenty four Filipinos seized on a cargo vessel and an American and a Briton abducted from their car in the region's oil capital Port Harcourt are also still missing.

Posted by Publisher at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

Militants free 9 Chinese oil workers in Nigeria

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nine Chinese oil workers abducted last month by militants in an armed attack in Nigeria's southern delta were released on Sunday, officials said.

Sun Feb 4, 5:38 AM ET

The men were kidnapped on January 25 in a raid on the offices of the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), which was doing a seismic study in the Sagbama area of Bayelsa state for Royal Dutch Shell. One attacker was killed in the incident.

"The nine Chinese workers were unconditionally released and they are all in good health. No ransom was paid," a spokesman for Bayelsa state government said.

China's Foreign Ministry said the men were released early on Sunday and are expected to return home in the near future.

On January 18, five Chinese telecommunications workers were released two weeks after being kidnapped for ransom in Nigeria.

Nigeria has seen a spate of abductions of foreign workers, who have been held by different armed groups in Africa's top oil producer, where militancy has surged over the past year.

Oil industry executives see the delta region descending further into anarchy as Nigeria's landmark general elections set for April approach.

Posted by Publisher at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)

Activists report on Nigeria corruption

LAGOS, Nigeria - A human rights group said Wednesday its study of one of Nigeria's oil-producing states found that officials squandered or stole public money, some hospitals required patients to bring their own beds, and schools were running out of chalk.

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 31, 12:15 PM ET

New York-based Human Rights Watch made the allegations after studying government finances in the state of Rivers — one of six oil-producing states in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer.

"Many state and local officials in Rivers have squandered or stolen public money that could have gone toward providing vital health and education services," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

The Rivers governor's office rejected allegations of wrongdoing, saying government audits had not turned up any problems.

Out of a 2006 budget of $1.3 billion, the governor's office handed out more than $90,000 a day in unspecified "contributions" and budgeted $10 million for the year for "entertainment and hospitality ... gifts and souvenirs," the Human Rights Watch report said.

Also on the shopping list was a private jet to replace a helicopter purchased the previous year, the group said. Most Nigerians don't have access to clean water or electricity.

The office of Gov. Peter Odili also budgeted roughly $65,000 per day for travel. Human Rights Watch didn't say how many officials were in the state office.

Mila Ofobirika, a Rivers state official, called the report a "farce."

"The report does not reflect the reality on the ground" and government audits showed no theft, he said. "We have nothing to fear because we have put our house in order."

Under Nigeria's federal system, the central government disperses money to officials in the country's 36 states, who are responsible for providing basic services. Rivers is one of six states in the southern Niger Delta region where crude oil is pumped.

The report, by researcher Chris Albin-Lackey, said that politicians in Rivers have a record of "shocking and disastrous failure" in their delivery of basic services like primary health care and education.

Researchers found that Rivers health clinics often required patients to bring their own beds and medicines and only one of the 15 schools surveyed had textbooks. Most schools were running out of chalk, and wrote on bare cement walls.

"State and local budgets have expanded dramatically in recent years, but mismanagement and theft has left basic health and education services in a terrible state of decay," Takirambudde said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the report said that some local politicians were banking annual salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Officials hid public documents and government officials in one local area required colleagues to swear secrecy oaths before "juju" — the popular name for black magic — shrines.

With a population of 140 million, oil-rich Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and, at least on paper, one of its richest. Local governments have had their budgets increased by up to fourfold in the last eight years by a windfall generated by high oil prices.

But most Nigerians say they've seen little improvement in their lives.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has promised to crack down on corruption and several top state officials have been investigated, but the opposition says those probes are politically motivated. General elections are scheduled for April and competition for the lucrative state government positions is heating up.

Posted by Publisher at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2006

US gives Nigeria equipment to fight bird flu

LAGOS (AFP) - The United States in Abuja gave Nigeria specialized equipment and supplies worth 356,500 dollars to support the fight against avian influenza, the US embassy in Nigeria said in a statement.

Thu May 25, 4:29 PM ET

The donated items include essential equipment such as sprayers, rubber boots, GPS units, first aid kits, gloves and disinfecting brushes, it said.

At the handover ceremony, US ambassador John Campbell said "we have not given up the fight to stamp out this horrible disease."

Campbell noted that Nigeria was there for the American people during the Katrina disaster, "so when your government made these supply shortages known to us, we were only too happy to help," the statement said.

The outbreak last January of avian influenza in Nigeria poses a potential threat to human life and could cause severe economic losses in the poultry industry, the text said.

To date, there have been confirmed reports of the disease on poultry farms in more than a dozen Nigerian states, including Lagos, the nation's economic capital.

More than 450,000 birds have died or have been killed following the outbreak across Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

The US Agency for International Development is working closely with the Nigerian government to address the economic growth and public health implications of the disease, the statement said.

USAID had sponsored two Avian influenza training workshops held in southwest city of Ibadan, and in Minna, capital of north-central Niger state, it added.

Posted by Publisher at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)