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Nigeria fights militants near oil centre
Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria — Soldiers battled militia fighters around a southern Nigeria oil-industry centre in a new government campaign against militants blamed for an upsurge of deadly raids around the city, officials said.

Troops in helicopters and gunboats attacked ethnic fighters Saturday in the mangrove swamps and creeks around Port Harcourt "to protect the city and allow people go about their lawful affairs," army spokesman Col. Mohammed Yusuf said.

Yusuf declined to give details or a casualty count in the operation, which began Friday.
Port Harcourt is a key operational base for multinational oil companies pumping Nigeria's daily crude exports of 2.5 million barrels. Deadly fighting among rival factions battling for control of the region's oil proceeds have surged in recent weeks, threatening the flow of crude from Africa's largest exporter of crude.
Government troops confronted militia fighters of the Ijaw ethnic group at Isaka Island, 10 kilometres southeast of Port Harcourt on Friday, the militia group's leader, Asari Dokubo, said by telephone.

"We drove the ground troops away but they came after us with helicopter gunships," forcing the fighters to retreat, said Dokubo.
Security forces launched more air raids Saturday, said Dokubo. He said six of his militia fighters have suffered minor injuries but none has been killed in the two days of fighting.

Dokubo said his Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force has carried out most of the recent attacks around Port Harcourt, targeting a rival militia group. Some 50 people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting over the last month.
Dokubo, who claims to lead 2,000 armed men, said he seeks self-determination for the estimated 6-8 million ethnic Ijaws of the Niger Delta.
Dokubo acknowledges financing his fighters by tapping oil pipelines to steal crude for sale locally and abroad.

The region's impoverished communities accuse the partnership of government and oil multinationals of depriving them of the oil wealth on their land.

"We want to take Port Harcourt. We want to liberate our people," he added.

Similar violence last year in and around the oil port city Warri, 150 kilometres northwest of Port Harcourt shut down 40 per cent of Nigeria's oil exports for several weeks. Nigeria, a member of OPEC, is the world's seventh-largest oil exporter.

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