Shell Evacuates Staff from Niger Delta as Five Die in Clashes

www.srimedia.com Posted by on Mar 18, 2003, 10:39pm

A Shell platform in the Niger Delta The clashes between navy troops and ethnic Ijaw militants near Nigeria's southern oil town of Warri in the Niger Delta resulted in the death of five civilians on Sunday.

Activists of the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) group said that the civilians died when troops raided an Ijaw town called Okerenkoko, on Thursday. The soldiers had accused community members of planning to disrupt the operations of Royal Dutch Shell. The Ijaw claim their fishing communities have been polluted by the oil industry. They also have a long-standing grievance over lack of compensation from Shell and the US oil company Chevron Texaco.

Nigerian navy spokesman, Shinebi Hungiapuko, confirmed there had been clashes between troops and armed militants. He said the situation was still under control but did not give further details.

Royal Dutch Shell has has an enormous amount of criticism for its operations in the Niger Delta
Africa's largest oil producer Shell, which produces about half of Nigeria's output of two million barrels a day, has key facilities in the area.

On Sunday the oil company said that it had begun evacuating "non-essential" staff from the affected areas in compliance with its safety regulations. According to local officials, the company has also shut down two oil facilities with a combined output of 55,000 barrels per day as a precautionary measure. On aggregate, total output form the country has fallen by 30,000 barrels a day.

Shell also said three policemen escorting a company barge on the Esravos River were taken hostage on Friday and were yet to be freed.

The latest unrest has its roots in a violent dispute which broke out in Warri in February between the Urhobo and Itshekiri communities over the delineation of electoral wards ahead of April-May general elections. The Ijaw community later sided with the Urhobo, alleging that the way the boundaries of the wards were drawn up favoured the Itshekiri.

A Shell platform and refinery in the Niger Delta In a petition to President Olusegun, Obasanjo Bello Oboko, president of FNDIC said "Our fear is that the whole political processes in Warri is being militarised. Security operatives have been secured to perpetuate unlawfully delineated electoral wards."

Tension in the Warri area has added to apprehension that the coming elections, the first since the 1999 vote that ended more than 15 years of military rule, may be marred by violence. Rival supporters of different political parties have clashed in various parts of the country, while several cases of political assassinations have been recorded nationwide.

The threat of war between the United States and Iraq and the ongoing political crisis in Venezuela has already sent world oil prices spiralling, and traders are nervously eyeing the unstable situation in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer.

A judicial committee set up by Nigeria's parliament last month called on Shell to pay $1.5 billion in compensation to the Ijaw.