Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lagos (Agenzia Fides)- Nigeria, one of Africa's largest oil producers, suffers from tensions in north and south which sometimes explode in violence.
In the southern Niger Delta region which has most of the country's reserves of gas and oil guerrillas of MEND, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, demand a greater share in oil revenues for the local people who see their land polluted by extractive activities.
MEND specialises in attacks on multinational oil platforms creating a vast international echo at a time when because of tension over speculative oil prices the threat to stop, even for a short time, the extraction of oil in one of the producers is enough to push prices up.
In May this year MEND announced a unilateral treaty. However it was later revoked when two of its leaders were arrested in Angola in September. One of the men Henry Okah, is accused of arms trafficking for a faction of MEND. During an OPEC summit (organisation of oil producing countries) in Riad, Saudi Arabia, the Angolan President Eduardo Dos Santos told his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Yar'Adua, the two men would be soon extradited to Nigeria.
The crisis in southern Nigeria threatens to spread to the nearby peninsula of Bakassi where thirty people, 20 of them Cameroonian soldiers were killed in an attack (see Fides 14 and 15 November 2007), for which the Liberators of the Southern Cameroonian People claimed responsibility in a statement which said “we will not stop until France and the Republic of Cameroon leave our country, Southern Cameroon”. Also in Bakassi there are major oil interests.
Tension in northern Nigeria is due to rival local political factions with no qualms about manipulating religious sentiments and ethnic disputes. Elections on 18 November in Kano State were marked by violence in which at least six people were killed. The clashes were between supporters of the All Nigerian People's Party (ANPP), and those of the ruling party in Kano state the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the streets to protest against reported electoral fraud.
Since 1999 with the end of the military regime and the re-establishment of democracy, in Nigeria, about 10,000 people have been killed in political clashes. In northern Nigeria the police dismantled a terrorist cell whose members came from three northern states Kano, Yobe and Borno: the local authorities said the group was planning a terrorist attack.
These are the reasons why Nigeria is the centre of attention of various world powers which look increasingly at Africa as an important supplier of oil. The creation of a US Africa Military Command AFRICOM is a significant example of this interest. Most African countries, first of all Nigeria and South Africa, refused to host AFRICOM. Only Liberia agreed to host the Command on principle. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/11/2007 righe 37 parole 519)
