Time bomb Nigeria delta: In Nigeria’s oil region violence is increasing – 64 cases of abduction in 2007 already

Nigeria’s most important oil region, the Niger delta, is sinking increasingly into chaos and violence. The number of violent hostage-takings has increased dramatically since January 2007. In the past three months alone 64 foreigners have been abducted in the crisis region to force the payment of ransom. In the year 2006 70 foreigners were abducted by militia. "If Nigeria’s government does not finally find a peaceful solution to the conflict by negotiation with all 40 ethnic communities in the Niger delta, then in two years at the latest there will be a complete collapse of the production of oil which is important for Nigeria ands many western countries”, said the GfbV Africa correspondent, Ulrich Delius. "For the terror in the Niger delta has been created by domestic factors and cannot effectively be ended by military means, even if the security forces are strengthened and trained by British and US American experts.”

It seems clear that the times of the peaceful resistance of the MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni) and their legendary leader Ken Saro-Wiwa have gone. In view of the violent attacks of the militia "Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta” (MEND) and other militant movements of the impoverished 27 million native inhabitants of the delta some states have already forbidden their citizens to work in the Niger delta. Thus the Philippines following the abduction of 24 of its citizens have ordered the withdrawal of all those working in Nigeria.

Since the beginning of the attacks of the MEND at the end of 2005 Nigeria’s oil industry has lost at least 4.5 thousand million US dollars as a result of the violence. Previously about two million barrels of mineral oil were being produced per day, so Nigeria is at present losing 800,000 barrels. In the year 2004 the country still lost only 200,000 barrels per day as a result of the attacks. About 95% of Nigeria’s exports come from oil. One of the largest importers is the USA, which draws 14% of its mineral oil imports from Nigeria.

The continuing impoverishment in the Niger delta, where many people still have to make do on less than one dollar per day, is the motive force behind the violence. While Nigeria has earned more than 300 thousand million US dollars from the export of oil since the seventies, the inhabitants of the Niger delta are complaining to the present day over the catastrophic consequences to the environment and to health from the oil-mining and the burning of mineral oil. A master-plan for the region announced on Tuesday this week by the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo offers little hope of improvement since the notoriously corrupt development commission of the Niger delta is responsible for the implementation of the plan. The commission, which was set up in the year 2000, has lost its credibility as, like many other Nigerian government bodies, it has for years been embezzling money which was intended for the development of the region.