Conflict in the Niger Delta

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The conflict in the Niger Delta has its roots in ethnic differences in the multi-ethnic state of Nigeria . During the colonial period, the British were mainly present near the coast, i.e. in the south, while in the north they only exercised indirect rule over local Muslim rulers.

The time of independence in 1960 coincided with the beginning of oil production, the production areas were in the Christian south, but the majority of the population lived in the Muslim north. The Niger Delta declared itself independent in 1967 under the name Biafra , but was forcibly reintegrated in the Biafra War until 1970.

This is how the dispute over oil production in the Niger Delta , which has not yet been resolved, arose between the peoples affected on the one hand and the local international oil companies, in particular the Royal Dutch Shell company , and the Nigerian central government on the other.

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People organized non-violent demonstrations in 1993 for the rights of residents in the oil-producing areas, which temporarily led to the cessation of oil production. The area was then occupied by the Nigerian military; After a staged show trial, some leaders, including the world-famous Ken Saro-Wiwa , were executed in 1995.

After that the protests became more and more militant and the structures more and more confusing. According to a 2005 report, local power was in fact exercised by armed gangs. The police are poorly trained and corrupt.

Oil production is damaging more and more the ecology and thus agriculture , aquaculture and fishing . The damage hits the local population, while the income from oil production flows elsewhere. Today over 7000 kilometers (as of 2010) criss-cross the Niger Delta, some of which are completely outdated. Due to many leaks and frequent oil thefts, oil leaks almost permanently and spreads across the country.

Representations of the conflict in individual years

This section is not a complete chronology, but a representation of the situation in a few selected years.

In 1998: Kaiama Declaration

On December 11, 1998, young people of the Ijaw ethnic group from over five hundred parishes and forty clans in the Niger Delta met in Kaiama in the state of Bayelsa in Nigeria to discuss how the Ijaws in the Niger Delta could survive in the long term.

Findings of the Ijaw youth

  • The Ijaw Nation was forcibly placed under the state of Nigeria through British colonization .
  • The Ijaws would have developed as a sovereign nation with political, economic, social and cultural autonomy if it had not been for the economic interests of the imperialists .
  • With the division of the Southern Protectorate into East and West, the British began the Balkanization of a previously cohesive and culturally homogeneous Ijaw people into political and administrative units and further into six states ( Ondo , Edo , Delta , Bayelsa , Rivers and Akwa Ibom ) in 1939 in which the Ijaws mostly suffered socio-political, economic, cultural and psychological losses as a minority .
  • The quality of life of the Ijaw people has been destroyed as a result of total neglect , oppression and exclusion from the alliance of the Nigerian state with the transnational oil companies.
  • The political crisis in Nigeria is primarily a battle over petroleum , which accounts for over 80% of gross domestic product , 95% of the state budget and 90% of foreign exchange income, of which 65%, 75% and 70% respectively come from the Ijaw Nation. Despite these large contributions, the Nigerian state rewards with avoidable deaths resulting from environmental degradation and military repression .
  • The undiminished damage to the fragile natural environment and the health of the Ijaws is mainly due to uncontrolled crude oil and natural gas exploration and extraction, which has resulted in numerous oil spills , uncontrolled flaring , deforestation , indiscriminate sewers, floods, subsidence, coastal erosion , earth tremors and so on. Oil and gas are finite raw materials, and a complete lack of interest in ecological restoration, given the experience of Oloibiri, signals an impending disaster for the peoples of Ijawland.
  • The environmental degradation in Ijawland by transnational oil companies and the Nigerian state arises mainly because the Ijaws have been deprived of their natural rights to property and control over their land and raw materials through undemocratic laws in the Nigerian state, such as the Land Use Decree of 1978, the Petroleum Decree of 1969 and 1991, Osborne Land Decret No. 52 of 1993, National Inland Waterways Authority Decree No. 13 of 1997, and so on.
  • The principle of derivation in the distribution of state income has been deliberately and systematically devalued by successive regimes of the Nigerian state. We mention the drastic reduction of the principle of origin from 100% (1953), 50% (1960), 45% (1970), 20% (1975) 2% (1982), 1.5% (1984) to 3% (1992) and rumored 13% in Sani Abacha's undemocratic and unenforced constitution .
  • The violence in Ijawland and other parts of the Niger Delta, which sometimes manifests itself in intra- and inter-ethnic conflicts, is sponsored by the state and transnational oil companies to divide, weaken and distract communities in the Niger Delta from the root causes of their problems.
  • The recently disclosed looting of the national treasury by the Abacha junta only reflects an existing and persistent trend of public stealing by public officials in the Nigerian state. We recall the over $ 12 billion ( gulf war windfall ) plundered by Babangida and his cohorts . Over 70% of the billions of dollars looted by military rulers and their civilian collaborators came from the devastated Ijawland.

Ijaw Youth Resolutions

  1. All of the land and raw materials (including minerals ) in the Ijaw Territory belong to the Ijaw communities and are the basis of our survival.
  2. We reject all undemocratic decrees that rob our peoples / communities of the right to ownership and control over our lives and raw materials. The decrees were enacted without our participation and consent, such as the land use decree, the petroleum decree, and so on.
  3. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all military from Ijawland, which the Nigerian state is using for the occupation and oppression. Any oil company that uses the services of the Nigerian state military to protect its operations is considered an enemy of the Ijaw people. Family members of military personnel stationed in Ijwaland should appeal to their people to leave the Ijaw area alone.
  4. The Ijaw youth from all parishes of all Ijaw clans in the Niger Delta will take steps to implement these resolutions from December 30, 1998 as a step towards regaining control over our lives. We therefore demand that all oil companies stop all exploration and production activities in the Ijaw area. We are fed up with flares, oil spills, gas spills and being labeled saboteurs and terrorists .
  5. The Ijaw youths promote the principle of peaceful coexistence between all Ijaw communities and with our immediate neighbors, despite the provocative and divisive actions of the Nigerian state, the transnational oil companies and their subcontractors. We want friendship and camaraderie with our neighbors: Itsekiri, Ilaje, Urhobo, Isoko, Edo, Ibibio, Ogoni, Ekpeye, Ikwerre and so on. We confirm our commitment to fight for self-determination together with other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta .
  6. We show solidarity with all organizations and ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and elsewhere that are fighting for self-determination and justice . In particular, we mention the struggle of the O'odua People's Congress (OPC), Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Egi Women's Movement and so on.
  7. We show solidarity with the Nigerian oil workers (NUPENG and PENGASSAN) and expect them to see this freedom struggle as a struggle for humanity .
  8. We reject the current democratization program of the Abubakar regime, as no reorganization of the Nigerian Federation preceded it. A “ Sovereign National Conference ” of equally represented ethnic nationalities is the goal to discuss the democratic federation of Nigerian ethnic nationalities. The conference should mention the acts of violence and killings that marked the recent local government elections in most of the Niger Delta. The conference should point out that these election conflicts manifested the undemocratic and unjust nature of the military transition program. The conference should therefore confirm that the military are incapable of establishing true democracy in Nigeria.
  9. We call on all Ijaws to remain true to the Ijaws folklore and to work for total liberation. There is no other home than Ijawland.
  10. We want to stay within Nigeria, but demand and work on self-administration and raw material control for the people of the Ijaw. A conference should recognize that a federation of ethnic nationalities is best for Nigeria. The federation should be based on equality and social justice.

In 2004: “ All-Out War ” of the NDPVF

On September 24, 2004, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari declared the " all-out war " to the foreign oil companies and embassies. An agreement signed on October 1, 2004 with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on an immediate ceasefire, the dissolution of all militias and militant groups, and complete disarmament lapsed just a few weeks later. In an open letter to the President, Asari refused to cooperate and proclaimed the sovereignty of the Niger Delta.

The constant attack on oil wells and pipelines in the Niger Delta leads to a drop in oil production and a global increase in the price of oil .

In 2006

Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta

From the beginning of 2006 a hitherto unknown militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) occurs, which hit the oil production facilities of the Royal Dutch Shell especially in January and February with its raids .

The MEND now forms an alliance controlled by the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) with the Martyrs Brigade , which was founded by Cynthia White after she left the NDPVF as a former spokeswoman for Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

Abduction cases in August 2006

On August 14, 2006, the Federal Foreign Office warned against traveling to the states of Delta , Bayelsa , Rivers and Akwa Ibom, not least because of the increased risk of hostage-taking .

On August 15, President Olusegun Obasanjo announced the military fight (“force for force”) against hostage-takers and constant coastal surveillance.

On August 20, 2006, the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) killed ten alleged MEND members, who are said to have been members of a delegation which, after a successful negotiation, freed the Shell employee who was kidnapped on August 8 from hostage . The hostage probably also died.

On August 22, 2006, the US government recommended that nationals stay away from the Niger Delta

date kidnapping Perpetrator source
August 3, 2006 A German employee of the construction company Bilfinger Berger in Port Harcourt was kidnapped. A previously unknown rebel group claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking. The kidnappers reiterated their call for two of their leaders to be released from Nigerian custody. The German was released from hostage custody on August 20. Movement for the People of the Niger Delta (MONDP) FAZ
TAZ
August 4, 2006 Three Filipino oil workers were abducted by gunmen from a bus near Port Harcourt. They were released ten days later.    
August 8, 2006 A Shell employee was abducted and believed to be killed on August 20 in a battle with the Joint Task Force (JTF) of the Nigerian military.   Al Jazeera
Vanguard
August 9, 2006 Two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were taken hostage from a supply ship off the Nigerian coast and released on August 16, 2006.   ABC
August 10, 2006 A Belgian worker and his Moroccan colleague were kidnapped in Port Harcourt. Both were released on August 14th.    
August 13, 2006 At least five foreign oil workers (one German , two British , one Irish and one Pole ) were abducted from a nightclub in Port Harcourt just before midnight . The German national was released on August 23, 2006.   WORLD
n-tv
Vanguard
HRW

In the year 2010

  • A Nigerian rebel group kidnaps oil company executives and bombs oil wells.

literature

  • Ibada S. Ibada: Alienation and Militancy in the Niger Delta: Hostage Taking and the Dilemma of the Nigerian State. (PDF; 527 kB) In: African Journal on Conflict Resolution. 8, No. 2, 2008, pp. 11-34.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Emergence of Armed Groups in Rivers State . Human Rights Watch (6) The prevailing culture of impunity in Nigeria (English, 2005)
  2. ↑ Kaiama Declaration ( Memento of April 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  3. ^ A b Government squares up against insurgents . ( Memento of October 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Nigeria First , September 29, 2004
  4. ^ The Agreement to End the Violence in Rivers State . Human Rights Watch
  5. ^ NDPVF An Open Letter to the President of the Nigerian State - My Position for a comprehensive settlement of the Niger Delta Imbroglio . ( Memento of February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) United Ijaw
  6. ^ NDPVF The Martyrs Brigade . ( Memento of February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) United Ijaw
  7. ↑ Safety instructions . AA travel warning, August 14, 2006
  8. ↑ a b c d Vanguard-Online (August 27, 2006): Page no longer available , search in web archives: Anger in N-Delta They killed 10 negotiators, hostage, mistaking them for militants@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.vanguardngr.com
  9. ↑ a b Nigeria: Military Must Be Held to Account for Razing of Community . Human Rights Watch , August 29, 2006
  10. ↑ FAZ
  11. ↑ TAZ
  12. ^ Nigerian oil activists vow revenge . ( Memento of March 11, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ) Al Jazeera , August 24, 2006
  13. ^ Four oil workers freed in Nigeria . ABC News, August 16, 2006
  14. ↑ Another German kidnapped . In: Die Welt , August 16, 2006
  15. ↑ Kidnapping in Nigeria. Second German hostage free. n-tv, August 24, 2006